Junius  B.  Wood. 

The  Negro  in  Chicago, 


(1916) 


ILLINOIS  HISTORICAL  SURVEY. 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

r.LINC!S  LIBRARY 

ir  URBANA-CHAMPA1GN 


Al  SURVEY 


35. 8960773 
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The 
Negro 
in 
Chicago 


Published  \>y 
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Address,    The    Daily    News,    15    North    5th    avenue, 
Chicago. 


THE  NEGRO   IN 
CHICAGO 


^ 


How  He  and  His  Race  Kindred  Came  to  Dwell 

in  Great  Numbers  in  a  Northern  City; 

How  He  Lives  and  Works;  His 

Successes    and    Failures ; 

His  Political  Outlook. 


A    FIRST-HAND    STUDY 


By  JUNIUS  B.   WOOD 

(Of  The  Chicago   Daily   News  Staff.) 


Reprinted    from    The    Chicago    Daily    News, 
issues  of  Dec.  11  to  27,  1916. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I.  Page 

How  the  Colored  Man  Came  to  Chicago 5 

CHAPTER  II. 

Jobs  Which  Are  Plentiful  for  Colored  Workers 7 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  South  and  the  Trade  Unions  of  the  North 9 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Negro  in  Business  and  Investment         .        .        .        .        .        .        11 

CHAPTER  V. 

Many  Are  in  Professional  and  Political  Life 13 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Musicians,  Artists,  Writers,  and  the  Stray  Genius        .        .        .        .        15 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Apartments  for  Colored  Families;  Two  Great  Institutions        .        .        17 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Churches  and  Charitable  Institutions 19 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Public  Schools  and  Opportunities  in  Civil  Service       .        .        .        .        21 

CHAPTER  X. 

Real  Estate  Values  and  Bad  Housing  Conditions        ....        23 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Politics  Puts  Disorderly  Dives  Among  Homes 25 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Gambling_Controlled  by  a  Powerful  Political  Syndicate       .        .        .         27 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Mayors,  Congressmen  and  State  Senators  Elected  by  Colored  Voters        29 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Planning  for  the  Future  and  Better  Conditions         ....        30 


,  HIST, 


THE  NEGRO  IN  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  I 


How  the  Colored  Man  Came  to  Chicago 


Jean  Baptiste  Point  de  Saible  tramped 
to  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  and  l>uilt 
a  home  137  years  ago.  His  was  the  first 
house  in  the  present  198  square  miles  of 
skyscrapers  and  miscellaneous  structures 
known  as  Chicago.  The  rough  house  in 
the  wilds  along  the  lake  may  have  the 
credit  for  being  the  foundation  of  the 
city.  Point  de  Saible  remained  here  sev- 
enteen years,  traded  with  the  Indians, 
trapped  for  skins,  fought  and  drank  whis- 
ky. Then  in  1796  he  sold  his  horns  to 
a  Frenchman  and  went  away  to  what  is 
now  Peoria.  He  was  the  first  settler  arid 
property  owner  in  Chicago. 

Point  de  Saible  was  a  free  colored  man 
from  Santo  Domingo.  To-day  the  city 
which  that  colored  man  founded  is  one 
of  opportunity  and  freedom  unexcelled 
for  the  man,  woman  or  child  of  the  Negro 
race.  From  all  parts  of  America,  espe- 
cially from  the  southland,  their  eyes  tuin 
toward  Chicago.  Many  of  them  come 
north.  The  influx  has  run  into  the  thou- 
sands in  the  last  few  months. 

Colored  Population  Gaining* 

The  colored  portion  of  Chicago's  popu- 
lation is  growing  more  rapidly  in  propor- 
tion to  its  numbers  than  any  other.  Pnme 
persons  see  in  it  a  danger  to  the  future 
of  the  city.  It  is  admittedly  a  very  com- 
plex problem.  The  colored  population  is 
pushing  out  farther  every  day.  It  thas 
broken  out  of  the  city  blocks  which  a 
few  years  ago  were  called  its  own,  until 
to-day  it  covers  hundreds  of  blocks  of 
residence  and  business  territory.  It  pre- 
sents a  situation  which  cannot  be  ig- 
nored. 

Little  has  been  known  of  this  big  ele- 
ment in  the  city's  life.  Even  thoee  who 
have  given  it  study  and  time  cannot 
agree  on  such  an  elementary  fact  as  the 
number  of  colored  persons  in  the  city. 
Estimates  run  from  40,000  to  175,000. 
Definite  information  on  the  local  activi- 
ties of  the  race  has  been  lacking.  Now 
a  reporter  for  The  Daily  News  has  made 
an  effort  to  present  the  facts  about  some 
of  these  activities,  in  order  to  describe 
truthfully  a  condition  vital  to  Chicago. 

Colored  men  and  women  are  represent- 
ed in  almost  every  line  of  activity  in 
Chicago.  In  no  other  city  of  the  country 
do  they  fill  such  responsible  positions  in 


political,  industrial  and  professional 
fields.  That  is  why  leaders  of  the  race 
declare  that  Chicago  is  the  city  which 
holds  out  the  most  promising  future  for 
their  people. 

In    the    Industrial   Field. 

In  the  industrial  field  tho  colored  popu- 
lation has  invaded  the  labor  market  with 
a  rush.  Men  and  women  of  the  race  are 
being  employed  by  thousands  in  business 
plants  where  a  few  years  ago  a  colored 
person  would  not  be  admitted  even  as  a 
visitor.  To  organized  labor  the  growing 
problem  of  colored  help  is  a  disquieting 
augury  of  future  storms.  Chicago  is  one 
of  the  few  cities  in  the  United  States 
where  the  'colored  man  is  not  admitted 
to  the  trade  unions,  even  though  he  may 
have  a  union  card  from  some  other  city. 
Out  of  the  union  he  is  eligible  as  a  strike 
breaker  .and  once  he  has  shoved  his  foot 
ever  the  "employes'  entrance"  the  colored 
man  often  remains,  even  after  the  strike 
ie  settled. 

In  Chicago  are  hundreds  of  stores,  res- 
taurants, saloons,  barber  shops,  haber- 
dasheries, tailor  shops,  beauty  parlors, 
real  estate  offices  and  similar  lines  of 
business  run  by  colored  men  and  women, 
In  commercial  activity  they  have  lagged 
in  the  north  compared  with  the  south. 
They  trade  at  stores  run  by  other  races. 
Some  stores  make  special  inducements 
to  them.  Others  try  to  discourage  their 
patronage. 

Race   Politically   Exploited. 

Politically  the  Negro  race  is  being  ex- 
ploited in  Chicago  by  designing  men.  A 
few  colored  men  receive  political  prefer- 
ment and  jobs  are  plentiful  of  certain 
classes  and  kinds  in  return  for  assistance 
in  this  exploitation.  Thus  some  individuals 
get  a  chance  to  make  money  through 
methods  by  which  the  race  as  a  whole  is 
held  back  and  discredited.  Into  districts 
where  homes  of  colored  families  predom- 
inate come  through  political  favor  the 
disorderly  saloons,  the  all  night  cabarets, 
the  shady  hotels  and  disorderly  houses, 
grambling  clubs  and  other  influences  of 
destrucion.  The  colored  boy  or  girl  who 
is  taught  in  the  public  schools  by  day 
sees  at  night  the  lights  of  the  neighbor- 
ing vicious  resort. 


Vice  in  Colored  District*. 

This  is  the  menace  to  Chicago,  accord- 
ing to  sociological  students.  In  the  last 
few  months  it  has  been  so  noticeable  that 
it  might  seem  a  definite  administration 
policy.  Vice  resorts  which  have  been 
driven  from  other  sections  of  the  city, 
new  ones  opened  on  pretentious  lines,  old 
ones  which  have  been  closed  by  the  po- 
lice, flourish  in  the  colored  districts,  un- 
molested by  police  or  city  authorities, 
defying  laws  of  municipality  and  state. 
If  the  entrance  into  a  one  time  exclusive 
residence  district  of  colored  household- 
ers is  to  be  the  first  step  in  its  decay 
into  a  vice  district  the  situation  is  grave. 
This  is  what  has  come  about  in  much  of 
the  territory  north  of  35th  street  and 
west  of  South  Wabash  avenue.  City  au- 
thorities are  prone  to  ignore  the  right 
of  their  colored  constituents  to  respecta- 
ble home  surroundings.  Reputable  col- 
ored citizens,  who  could  afford  to  do  so, 
have  moved  from  this  part  of  the  city, 
leaving  a  district  of  high  lights  and  deep 
shadows  which  is  equaled  in  few  cities. 

Included  in  Chicago's  population  are 
about  75,000  colored  persons.  Other  thou- 
sands live  in  Evanston;  Gary,  Ind.;  Blue 
Island,  and  various  suburbs.  The  Negro 
yearbook,  published  at  Tuskegee,  Ala., 
places  the  Chicago  negro  population  at 
44,103.  Some  who  are  particularly  per- 
turbed by  the  activities  of  the  colored 
citizen  place  the  number  at  175,000.  The 
board  of  education  census  for  1914,  the 
last  in  which  colored  people  were  enu- 
merated separately,  fixed  the  number  at 
54,557.  Allowing  for  the  normal  increase 
of  5  per  cent,  and  considering  the  recent 
large  immigration  from  the  south,  the 
present  figure  should  be  near  75,000,  or 
about  3  per  cent  of  tho  total  population 
of  the  city. 

Colored   People    in    2d    Ward. 

Nearly  half  the  city's  colored  popula- 
tion lives  in  the  2d  ward.  The  number  is 
close  to  30,000  in  that  ward.  The  colored 
voters  control  it  politically,  though  the 
whites  outnumber  them.  However,  all 
the  former  are  citizens,  so  that  of  the 
ward's  qualified  voters  78  per  cent  are 
colored.  The  1st  ward,  with  7,000,  the 
30th  with  almost  as  many,  then  the  3d, 
31st,  14th  and  6th  in  order,  have  heavy 


colored  voting  strength.  Many  precincts 
in  the  2d  ward  do  not  have  a  dozen  vot- 
ers who  are  not  colored. 

Chicago's  colored  population  follows 
certain  fairly  distinct  street  lines.  Start- 
ing at  West  22d  and  South  Dearborn 
streets,  the  largest  section  runs  south, 
broadening  toward  the  east  and  following 
the  railroad  tracks  between  Federal 
and  South  LaSalle  streets  on  the 
west.  At  24th  street  it  has  taken  in 
South  State  street;  at  26th  street  it  has 
crossed  Wabash  avenue;  at  31st  street  it 
runs  far  east,  tapering  back  gradually  be- 
tween 35th  and  39th  streets  to  its  former 
narrow  four  blocks.  This  continues  be- 
yond 63d  street,  always  pushing  farther 
south. 

Chicago's  largest  colored  population 
lives  between  29th  and  35th  streets.  Many 
real  estate  men  hold  that  it  will  be  only 
a  few  years  before  the  colored  people 
spread  over  all  that  big  section  as  far 
east  as  the  lake. 

Colony  in   Englewood   Also. 

In  Englewood  there  is  a  considerable 
colony  of  colored  people  between  West 
59th,  West  63d,  South  Ada  and  South  Hal- 
sted  streets,  and  south  from  there  as  far 
as  West  75th  street,  between  South  Ra- 
cine avenue  and  South  Morgan  street. 
South  of  East  63d  street  and  west  of  Cot- 
tage Grove  avenue  is  a  territory  where 
they  can  buy  property,  but  cannot  rent 
from  white  owners.  Many  have  bought  in 
that  high  class  district.  Around  East  55th 
street  and  Lake  Park  avenue  is  a  saloon 
element,  while  more  of  the  quiet  resi- 
dence class  have  homes  around  Evans 
avenue  and  East  48th  street,  Berkeley 
avenue  and  East  44th  street,  Ellis  ave- 
nue and  East  52d  street  and  in  South 
Michigan  avenue,  south  of  58th  street.  In 
what  is  known  as  Millerdale,  between 
East  93d  and  95th  streets,  for  four  blocks 
east  of  South  State  street  are  several 
hundred  more  families. 

On  the  west  side  the  colored  residents 
pretty  generally  occupy  a  territory  in- 
cluded between  Clarkson  court,  Ada  and 
Harrison  streets  and  Grand  avenue.  Few- 
er are  on  the  north  side  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  city  Most  of  them  are 
west  of  Wells  street  and  south  of  North 
avenue. 


CHAPTER  II 


Jobs  Which  Are  Plentiful  for  Colored  Workers 


How  generous  Chicago  is  in  work  for 
the  colored  man  is  shown  by  figures  com- 
piled in  a  canvass  of  several  hundred 
homes  made  by  The  Daily  News.  Three 
blocks  cutting  across  South  State.  South 
Dearborn,  Federal  and  South  LaSalle 
streets  were  covered  They  were  blocks 
which,  in  addition  to  homes,  included 
churches,  stores,  saloons  and  other  less 
savory  places  to  which  attention  will  be 
given  later.  The  census  showed  1,406  col- 
ored men,  women  and  children  in  the 
three  blocks  and  not  more  than  twenty- 
five  white  persons.  They  were  working 
people,  not  of  the  well-to-do  class. 

Some  Dislike  Steady  Work. 

Many  of   the   colored   people  from   the 

south  are  unaccustomed   to  steady  work 

iwith  only  one  day's  rest  in  every  seven. 

|  This  is   one   of  the   complaints  made   by 

/  employers  who  have  found  their  work  un- 

^  satisfactory.    A  man  was  at  the  Wabash 

I  avenue   department  of   the  Y.   M.   C.   A., 

/   complaining  he  had  lost  his  job.     A.   L. 

(^  Jackson,  the  secretary,  asked  him  if  he 

had  worked  every  day  each  week. 

"Goodness,  no,"  the  man  replied.  "I 
just  had  to  have  some  days  of  the  week 
off  for  pleasure." 

"Conditions  in  the  north  will  change 
that  spirit,"  said  Mr.  Jackson  in  telling 
of  the  incident.  "The  man  who  comes 
here  will  want  to  keep  pace  with  his 
brothers  in  the  north  in  living  and  rec- 
reation and  will  find  it  necessary  to  work 
every  day  in  order  to  keep  up.  His  man- 
ner of  living,  the  pleasures  he  affords 
himself  and  many  other  things  will  be 
added  to  a  changed  condition  of  life,  so 
that  loafing  will  no  longer  be  considered 
a  pleasure." 

Jackson  is  a  Harvard  graduate.  He 
went  through  Andover,  made  the  Harvard 
track  team  and  when  he  graduated  in  1914 
was  the  class  orator. 

.,    "In  the  south  they  do  not  consider  the 
^individual   in   discussing   the   problem   of 
the  Negro  race,"  he  said. 

Big  Percentage  at  Work. 

The  percentage  of  adults  who  were 
working  was  the  surprising  feature  of 
The  Daily  News  canvass.  Of  those  out 
of  work,  some  were  sick,  others  laying 
off  for  a  few  days  and  still  others  too 
lazy  or  disinclined  to  w 
reasons.  The  summarized  figures, 
eluding  children  were: 

Men. 

Working    799 

Idle  72 

Totals     871 

Per  cent  working 91.8 

•Of  these  246  are  housewives. 

Families  Left  In  the  South. 

Another  significant  feature  of  the  house 
to  house  canvass  was  the  number  of  men 


shown  to  have  come  here  in  the  last  six 
months.  Many  of  these  had  left  wives 
and  children  in  the  south,  and  declared 
their  eagerness  to  bring  them  to  Chicago. 
They  were  saving  enough  to  pay  the  cost 
of  moving  their  families  north  as  soon  as 
mild  weather  comes  again  next  year. 

In  one  house  there  were  four  men  who 
were  keeping  bachelor  quarters.  Each 
earned  from  $18  to  $27  a  week.  One  was 
a  stationary  engineer.  He  had  saved 
$153.  He  intended  buying  some  property 
and  by  next  spring  hoped  to  have  enough 
to  start  payments  and  bring  his  wife  and 
two  children  to  Chicago.  Two  others 
also  were  saving  to  bring  their  families. 

In  one  block  along  South  State  street, 
out  of  307  men  178.  or  58  per  cent,  had 
come  to  Chicago  in  the  last  six  months. 
Away  from  the  lodging  house  district  the 
percentage  was  lower. 

Such  conditions  indicate  that  Chicago's 
colored  population  will  continue  to  grow 
rapidly. 

Once  colored  help  is  used,  it  is  seldoiL 
discharged.  The  waiters  in  a  well  knowii 
"fill  'em  quick"  chain  of  lunchrooms  in 
Chicago  once  struck  on  the  promise  of 
being  taken  into  a  union.  In  the  end 
they  found  themselves  out  of  the  union 
and  their  Jobs.  both.  That  is  about  the 
only  strike  on  record.  After  barring 
them  for  many  years  that  company  a  few 
weeks  ago  started  re-employing  them  as 
short  order  cooks. 

Doesn't   Send   Money  Abroad. 

"The  employers  who  have  used  colored 
workers  keep  them."  said  an  aged  col- 
ored merchant.  "The  colored  man  has 
a  pride  in  his  work,  in  his  job  and  in  the 
concern  he  works  for.  His  living  ex- 
penses are  always  greater  than  his  in- 
come. He  does  not  send  one-fourth  of 
all  he  earns  to  some  country  in  Europe. 
His  ideas  are  American,  and  he  is  not 
against  the  law  and  always  scheming  to 
strike  or  riot  or  wreck  the  plant  of  his 
employer." 

Classes  of  work  in  which  numerous  col- 
ored men  or  women  are  employed  in  Chi- 
cago are: 


iers 

laying 

Pullman   porters. 

Manicurists, 

othei 

PS    too 

Butchers. 

Bartenders. 

for 

worse 

Asphalt   layers. 

Carpenters. 

Postal    clerks. 

Bricklayers. 

gure£ 

i,     ex- 

Stationary    engineers. 

Section  hands. 

Chauffeurs. 

Molders. 

omen. 

Total. 

Muckers. 

Cooks. 

*381 

1,180 

Housemaids. 

Waiters. 

62 

134 

Janitors. 

Saloon  porters. 

Housewreckers. 

Laborers. 

443 

1.314 

Theater  ushers. 

Messenger  boys. 

86.0 

89.8 

Housemen. 

Ironworkers. 

Barbel.. 

Weekly    Wages    Higher    Here. 

The   average   weekly   wage   of  the   col- 
ored worker  in  the  United  States  is  $8.63, 


according  to  Dr.  Charles  E.  Bentley,  one  For  Pullman  and  Stockyard*. 

of  the  two  Chicago  directors  of  the  Na-  TQ     Pullman  company,   which  for  years 

tlonal  Association   for   the   Advancement  was  tne   ,          t  sm|lc  y^mployer  ofycol. 

of  Colored  People.    Miss  Jane  Addams  is  ored  workers  in  the  couatry(  now  is  being 

the  other  director.     Chicago  is  attractive  Qard  presged  by  the  stockyards  concerns 

because  the  wages  are  much  higher  here.  The    Pullman  *  ompany    ^&B    about   7(50o 

The  canvass  made  by  The  Daily  News  porters,  of  whom  about  5,000  live  in  Chi- 

showed  some  of  the  weekly  wages  to  be  cago.    Recently  it  has  added  colored  men 

as  follows'  an(i   women     as    car    cleaners.      Another 

Delivery  or  door  boys,  $8.  7'500   are    7aiters   in  Restaurants,   dining 

Asphalt  layers,  $18  to  $27.90.  cars  or  cafes>  or  Porters  in  saloons.  The 

Building  wreckers,  $28.  stockyards    plants    already    employ    more 

Waiters,  saloon  porters,   hodearrlers.  etc.,   $10  than   5,000    colored    workers,    Swift  &   Co. 

to  K12-  alone  having  2,000,  and  are  adding  to  the 

Cooks  and  janitors,  $14.  number   daily. 

|Uoreamn^nr6%o%08.and  tIP8'  ,  A^*f't  Paving  companies  employ  hun- 

Barbers   and  bartenders.   $18.  dreds  of  colored  men.     They  will  be  out 

Tunnel  workers,  $31.20.  of  work  when  extreme  cold  weather  sets 

Track  elevation,  $19.20.  in,  and  the  colored  labor  market  will  face 

Girl  theatrical  maids  and  ushers,  $6.  its  first  crisis  in  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  III 


The  South  and  the  Trade  Unions  of  the  North 


One  of  the  largest  of  Chicago's  hotels 
had  trouble  with  its  chambermaids  a 
couple  of  weeks  ago.  They  quit  in  a 
body.  That  night  a  telephone  message 
came  to  one  of  the  colored  churches  on 
the  south  side  from  the  hotel  manage- 
ment saying  that  300  colored  girls  <were 
wanted  for  chambermaids.  There  was  a 
scurrying  around  and  mucii  more  tele- 
phoning, for  300  unemployed  girls  who 
can  do  bedroom  work  of  the  kind  required 
by  a  hotel  of  international  reputation  are 
hard  to  find  in  these  days  of  plentiful 
work.  But  they  were  found  and  the  next 
morning  colored  maids  were  on  every 
floor  in  the  big  hotel. 

The  European  war  and  the  consequent 
shortage  of  labor  in  the  United  States 
have  given  the  colored  man  his  indus- 
trial opportunity.  Previous  to  the  war 
'his  greatest  opening  came  through  the 
hostile  attitude  of  the  labor  unions, 
strange  as  it  may  seem.  Now  there  is 
work  in  plenty  for  all  and  few  are  idle, 
whether  skilled  workmen  or  ordinary  la- 
borers. 

Churches     Employment  Agencies. 

Nearly  every  colored  church  has  an 
employment  agency  which  is  one  of  its 
mast  active  auxiliaries.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  association  at  3763  South  Wa- 
bash  avenue  has  an  employment  branch 
which  fills  more  positioas  than  any  other 
agency  among  the  colored  people.  The 
Young  Women's  Christian  association  at 
3424  Rhodes  avenue  and  the  Phyllis 
Wheatley  home  at  3256  Rhodes  avenue  do 
similar  work  for  women  and  girls.  The 
Frederick  Douglass  center,  3032  South 
Wabash  avenue,  and  the  Wendell  Phillips 
settlement,  2009  Walnut  street,  the  two 
social  centers  among  the  rave,  find  this 
one  of  their  most  valuable  activities.  The 
Negro  Fellowship  league,  3005  South 
State  street,  an  organization  of  Mrs.  Ida 
B.  Wells  Barnett,  is  supported  to  a 
large  extent  by  its  employment  agency. 

Labor  agents  from  the  Stockyards  Pack- 
ing houses  and  other  big  concerns  patrol 
South  State  street  every  day,  accosting 
every  idle  man  they  see  and  asking  him 
if  he  'cares  for  work. 

Cause  of  Southern   Migration. 

Demand  for  cheap  labor  caused  the  col- 
ored man  to  be  brought  from  Africa.  Now 
that  he  is  the  master  of  his  own  des- 
tinies the  same  force  is  bringing  him 
north.  Shortage  of  crops,  the  boll  weevil 
anl  lack  of  work  in  the  south  were  add- 
ed incentives  causing  him  to  leave  that 
section  of  the  country.  The  colored  man 
wants  to  come  north,  where  he  can  vote, 
send  his  children  to  school  and  have  im- 
proved opportunities.  Nearly  all  of  those 
who  come  north  are  said  to  be  industri- 
ous. 


"I  can  send  my  children  to  school  here 
and  can  get  that  my  family  is  safe,"  said 
a  colored  man  who  had  been  a  steamboat 
captain  in  Florida.  "In  the  south  I  did 
not  know  when  trouble  might  start  in  the 
town  where  I  lived  and  in  the  excite- 
ment some  of  my  family  be  murdered." 

Arrivals    of   Varying:  Types. 

Of  an  entirely  different  type  was  a 
southern  field  hand  who  had  been  in  Chi- 
cago four  days,  got  himself  a  revolver 
and  went  out  and  brutally  murdered  an 
aged  white  man  returning  from  work. 

A  good  proportion  of  the  colored  men 
who  are  brought  into  court  are  these  re- 
cent immigrants  from  the  south.  Invari- 
ably they  explain  to  the  court  that  they 
were  given  free  railroad  tickets  to  come 
north  and  that  after  working  a  few  weeks 
in  return  they  became  tired  and  started 
loafing.  Courts  have  threatened  to  com- 
pel the  agencies  which  brought  such  riff- 
raff north  to  transport  them  back  to  the 
south. 

The  south  has  protested  strenuously 
against  the  exodus.  In  Florida  there  is 
a  penalty  of  $1,000  fine  for  any  person 
convicted  of  employing  a  colored  man  to 
go  out  of  the  state.  In  Georgia  the  fine 
is  $500.  One  labor  agent  for  a  big  Chi- 
cago corporation  escaped  being  locked  up 
only  by  beating  the  local  police  in  a  race 
to  an  outgoing  train. 

In  Macon,  Ga.,  the  police  forcibly  dis- 
persed 1,000  Negroes,  who  were  at  the 
railroad  station  to  get  a  train  for  Chica- 
go and  the  next  day  the  police  asked  for 
rifles  to  keep  the  colored  men  at  home. 
In  the  rural  parts  of  the  state  a  form  of 
peonism  has  been  introduced  by  which  a 
colored  man  must  sign  a  year's  contract 
before  he  can  get  work  and  becomes  a 
fugitive  if  he  leaves  before  the  end  of 
the  year.  Through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  south  newspapers  are  demanding 
that  northern  labor  agents  be  "run  out  of 
town"  and  that  the  Negroes  be  kept  at 
home.  They  assert  that  the  colored  man 
cannot  stand  the  northern  winters. 
Whether  Admiral  Peary  discovered  the 
north  pole  or  not,  a  colored  man  was 
with  him  at  the  point  farthest  north,  so 
the  race  can  endure  cold  if  it  wants  to. 

It  is  now  almost  as  difficult  for  a  col- 
ored man  to  leave  some  parts  of  the 
s^u'th  as  it  was  in  the  day  of  the  "un- 
derground railroad"  of  sixty  years  ago. 
In  many  of  the  small  towns  he  must  ex- 
plain where  he  is  going  before  he  can  buy 
a  railroad  ticket.  If  he  admits  that  he  is 
coming  to  Chicago  he  does  not  get  the 
ticket.  He  must  travel  by  easy  stages, 
buying  tickets  for  short  distance,  until 
Tennessee  or  Kentucky  is  reached  and 
he  can  slip  across  the  Ohio  river.  Rail- 
roads gave  excursions  to  the  north  until 
they  feared  southern  state  legislatures 


would  retaliate.  The  big  employers  of 
labor  chartered  their  own  trains.  An 
empty  trains  would  be  backed  into  a  town 
and  word  passed  around  that  anybody 
wanting  to  go  north  could  get  aboard. 
After  it  had  lingered  at  enough  towns  to 
fill  the  train  it  made  no  more  stops. 
Most  of  the  passengers  never  went  back. 
One  stockyards  plant  brought  several 
hundred  butchers  from  its  southern  plant 
for  the  summer  rush  and  sent  them  home 
again.  Other  concerns  offered  free  return 
trips  until  December  if  the  men  had  not 
overcome  their  homesickness  by  that 
time. 

The  importation  of  laborers  from  the 
south  is  continuing.  On  one  day  195  men 
arrived  from  Louisiana  in  one  party  to 
work  for  a  stockyards  concern.  Even 
living  quarters  were  waiting  for  them  in 
houses  which  had  been  rented  by  their 
employers.  Ocular  evidence  of  the  foot- 
hold colored  labor  has  at  the  stockyards 
is  shown  at  the  Indiana  avenue  station 
of  the  South  Side  Elevated  railroad  when 
the  trains  come  from  "the  yards"  at 
the  close  of  the  day's  work. 


Usually  Not  In  the  Unions. 

Colored  workers  first  got  into  the  stock- 
yards through  a  strike.  They  were  not 
members  of  the  union  and  when  the 
unions  went  out  the  colored  man  went  in. 
Though  the  American  Federation  of  La- 
bor has  gone  on  record  for  admitting  the 
colored  man  to  the  unions,  many  of  the 
national  organizations  will  not  admit 
him  and  each  local  organization  adopts  a 
policy  of  its  own.  In  Chicago  the  colored 
man  with  union  card  from  another  city 
is  permitted  to  work  on  union  jobs,  but 
he  can  seldom  get  into  a  local  union. 

"Union  leaders  look  on  the  colored 
man  as  cheap  labor,"  explained  a  man  in 
touch  with  the  situation.  "Chicago  is  one 
of  the  few  cities  where  he  is  either  kept 
out  or  frozen  out  of  the  unions.  If  he 
has  a  union  card  from  some  other  city  he 
is  permitted  to  work  as  long  as  there  is 
plenty  of  work  but  his  card  will  not  be 
transferred  to  the  local  union.  It  is  not 
the  colored  man  who  does  not  believe  in 
organization,  but  the  union  which  forces 
him  to  be  on  the  other  side." 


10 


CHAPTER  IV 


The  Negro  in  Business  and  Investment 


Jesse  Binga  has  a  bank  at  3633  South 
State  street.  It  is  the  only  bank  in  Chi- 
cago headed  by  a  colored  man,  of  which 
all  the  employes  and  most  of  the  patrons 
are  colored  persons.  It  Is  one  of  the 
few  successful  financial  institutions  of 
that  order  In  the  country. 

Although  not  the  wealthiest  colored 
man  In  Chicago,  Binga  probably  is  the 
most  extensive  real  estate  operator  of 
that  race.  Comparatively  few  years  ago, 
so  few  that  it  still  lingers  In  the  memory 
of  others  of  his  race,  he  drove  a  wagon 
peddling  coal  oil  and  gasoline.  He  in- 
vested his  money  in  realty.  He  married 
a  sister  of  the  late  "Mushmouth"  John- 
son, a  well  known  gambler  and  saloon- 
keeper. The  sister  inherited  more  than 
$200,000  of  the  estate. 

Johnson's  last  gambling  place  was  at 
464  State  street.  Every  1  cent  piece  that 
came  into  his  gambling  houses  was 
thrown  into  a  box  and  used  to  purchase 
toys  for  the  children  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. His  foster  sister  Cecilia  later 
caused  a  sensation  shortly  before  she 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, when  her  family  connections  were 
discovered.  She  now  is  the  wife  of  Dr. 
Theodore  R.  Mozee,  5131  South  Wabash 
avenue. 

"None  Like  Me,"   Say*  Binga. 

"I'm  an  Irishman.  You  won't  find  any 
other  colored  people  like  me,"  says  Mr. 
Binga.  Most  of  the  colored  business  men 
in  Chicago  have  started  with  nothing, 
for  the  race  is  young  as  a  free  people  in 
the  nation  and  still  younger  in  the  north. 
Few  of  them,  aside  from  professional 
men,  have  got  beyond  the  stage  of  "small 
business." 

Real  estate  appeals  as  an  investment 
to  the  thrifty  Negro.  The  individual  hold- 
ings of  some  of  them  run  into  surpris- 
ing figures.  Possibly  the  largest  single 
owner  of  Chicago  realty  among  colored 
men  is  George  H.  Jackson,  3416  Vernon 
avenue,  who  became  wealthy  by  corner- 
ing coal  in  Cincinnati  and  came  to  Chi- 
cago after  marrying  a  daughter  of  one 
of  the  wealthiest  colored  men  in  Ohio. 
He  is  past  60  and  an  ex-member  of  the 
Ohio  legislature. 

When  telling  of  Chicago  real  estate 
there  is  always  the  old  story  of  "once  it 
all  could  have  been  bought  for  a  song." 
On  the  northeast  corner  of  South  State 
and  36th  streets  Is  a  piece  which  actu- 
ally was  bought  for  a  song  or  two.  It 
represents  an  investment  of  $60,000.  Jo- 
seph J.  Jordan  is  the  owner.  When  he 
was  a  boy  his  father  had  a  pool  hall.  He 
took  to  the  violin  and  became  an  enter- 
tainer. Many  who  saw  the  night  lights  in 
Chicago  remember  his  cabaret.  Then  he 
wrote  "Lovey  Joe"  and  some  other  songs 
and  went  to  London.  There  he  sang  him- 
self into  the  heart  of  an  East  Indian 


maiden  and  a  dowry  of  $150,000.  They  live 
at  3406  South  Park  avenue  and  the  songs 
are  buying  real  estate. 

Hundreds  of  other  colored  men  are 
owners  of  property  varying  from  humble 
homes  to  one  or  more  apartment  build- 
ings. Some  of  the  latter  are  rented  ex- 
clusively to  white  tenants. 

731  Negro  II u mines*   1 1  oilmen    Here. 

In  other  lines  of  business  colored  men 
«nd  women  have  been  active.  Black's 
Blue  Book  for  1917,  which  is  published 
by  Ford  S.  Black  (a  postal  clerk  for 
eight  hours  of  each  night)  as  a  "di- 
rectory of  Chicago's  active  colored  people 
and  guide  to  their  activities,"  enumerated 
731  business  houses  in  sixty-one  differ- 
ent lines.  Not  all  of  them  are  on  the 
south  side.  A  restaurant  and  delicates- 
sen is  in  Broadway  at  Lawrence  avenue. 
Many  are  run  by  women.  They  even  have 
their  "lady  barbers."  Factories,  stores 
and  offices  are  run  by  colored  men.  Each 
employs  from  one  to  forty  persons. 

There  are  two  colored  licensed  building 
contractors  and  a  number  of  carpenters, 
plaster  bosses,  bricklayers,  decorators 
and  others  in  building  trades.  Olivet  Bap- 
tist church,  one  of  the  largest  in  the 
city;  St.  Monica's  Roman  Catholic  church, 
Fort  Dearborn  hospital,  the  Crescent  ho- 
tel, the  Ford  hotel  and  a  number  of 
apartment  and  store  buildings  were 
erected  by  colored  contractors,  artisans 
and  laborers. 

The  largest  manufacturing  establish- 
ment makes  face  powder  and  toilet  prep- 
arations. Anthony  Overton,  its  presi- 
dent, is  head  of  the  Chicago  branch  of 
the  National  Business  league. 

The  classification  is  as  follows: 


Advertising  agencies 
"Movie"  theater  ... 
Art  stores   

.  1 

Hair  dressing  parlors  70 
Hardware    2 

Hotels      ....                    5 

Automobile   liveries 
Bakeries    

.13 

5 

Ice   cream   parlors....  4 
Insurance   agencies    .  .  10 

1 

Barber  shops   

SO 

Laundries     ....         .       3 

Billiard  halls   

•>3 

Mercantile  agencies  .  .  1 
Millinery  stores  10 

Musical    instruments.  .  2 
Music  stores   (sheet)  .  .  3 

Blacksmith  shops  .  .  . 
Hook    stores    

.   4 

1 

China  painting  
Chiropodists    

.   4 
?1 

Oigarmakers     

ft 

Cleaning     and     Press- 
Ing    8 

Photographers    5 

Piano  tuning   .  .              1 

Cobblers    

9 

Plumbers       3 

Confectioners    

4 

Printers     7 

Contractors     

4 

Public  halls   8 

Court   reporters   
Decorators    
Dressmakers    

.   3 

.13 

15 

Publishers     7 

Real   estate    19 
Regalia  and  uniforms.   1 
Restaurants     63 
Saloons   23 

Drug   stores    
Dry   goods    stores... 

.12 
.    1 
.   6 

Shirtmakers    .             ..  1 

Employment  agencies  51  Shoe  polish  factories  5 
Express  and  storage. 801  Shoeshining  stands  ..12 
Feather  factory  1  Sign  painters  5 


Fisfa  markets    4 


Haberdashers 


Tailors     33 


Florists   4  Toilet  articles 

Furniture  stores    7  Undertakers    16 

Groceries   and   delica- 
tessens    33 


Total    731 


11 


In  the  south  the  colored  business  man 


V* 


to  a  large  extent  enjoys  a  monopoly  of 
the  trade  of  his  own  race.  In  Chicago  he 
faces  desperate  competition.  Few  stores 
attempt  to  discourage  colored  patronage. 
Race  clannishness,  nomadic  Instincts  for 
bargain  hunting,  business  temperament, 
ability  of  proprietors  and  many  other 
factors  enter  into  the  situation. 

Dr.  George  C.  Hall,  3408  South  Park 
avenue,  probably  knows  his  people  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  as  well  as  any 
man  in  the  country. 

"When  a  Negro  business  man  starts 
complaining  that  his  people  will  not  trade 
with  him  you  can  be  sure  that  the  fault 
is  with  him,"  said  Dr.  Hall.  "That  the 
colored  people  like  to  trade  with  their 
own  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  stores 
in  South  State  street,  most  of  which  have 
white  owners,  employ  colored  clerks  to 
attract  colored  trade.  Too  many  men  at- 
tempt to  run  a  business  which  they  do 
not  understand,  and  when  they  fail  blame 
it  on  their  customers." 

Some    Merchants    Shortsighted. 

"Some  colored  merchants  can't  see  far 
enough  ahead,  and  instead  of  figuring  that 
a  customer  will  come  back  they  try  to 
get  the  best  of  him,"  said  a  Jewish  mer- 
chant of  years  of  experience  In  the  dis- 


trict. "Once  the  colored  man  or  woman 
thinks  he  is  being  overcharged  his  trade 
Is  lost." 

Long  years  of  faithful  service  have  ad- 
vanced certain  colored  men  to  office  po- 
sitions of  prominence  which  do  not 
require  them  to  come  In  contact 
with  their  own  people.  One  is  an  elec- 
trical engineer  for  the  Commonwealth 
Edison  company,  another  is  general  time- 
keeper in  the  downtown  offices  of  one  of 
the  big  packing  companies,  another  is 
traffic  manager  for  a  Cleveland  steel  com- 
pany with  offices  in  Chicago's  "loop."  A 
big  tin  company  has  a  colored  man  as 
secretary  of  the  corporation  in  charge  of 
its  downtown  offices;  a  machinery  com- 
pany has  a  colored  man  for  buyer;  an- 
other of  the  race  is  solicitor  for  one  of 
the  big  banks.  Many  represent  Insurance 
companies,  real  estate  firms,  undertaking 
establishments  and  such  among  a  colored 
clientele. 

One  colored  woman,  a  widow,  over- 
came the  handicap  of  both  sex  and 
color  before  she  married  and  retired.  She 
is  Mrs.  W.  B.  Claxton,  19  East  28th  street, 
who  until  a  few  months  ago  (then  Miss 
Mable  P.  Blue)  was  office  manager  for 
me  Percheron  Society  of  America  at  the 
Union  stockyards. 


\ 


12 


CHAPTER  V 


Many  Are  in  Professional  and  Political  Life 


From  the  lofty  legislative  kail  to  the 
garish,  law  defying  cabaret  is  a  long 
Jump.  Yet  in  these  and  in  many  places 
between  the  colored  men  find  field  for 
activity  in  Chicago.  Some  are  college 
graduates.  Others  by  natural  talent  have 
graduated  from  the  noisy  saloon  or  the 
sedate  Pullman  sleeper.  In  almost  every 
profession  they  are  to  be  found.  Many 
are  in  the  front  ranks.  They  are  push- 
ing forward  in  increasing  numbers  each 
year.  Lawyers,  physicians,  surgeons, 
dentists,  musicians,  clergymen,  writers, 
teachers,  are  among  them.  Many  cater 
principally  to  white  clients. 

Miss  Ida  Platt,  5237  Ellis  avenue,  one 
of  the  first  women  to  be  admitted  to  the 
Illinois  bar,  is  the  only  woman  lawyer 
of  the  race  in  the  state  if  not  in  the  en- 
tire country.  Mrs.  E.  H.  Morris  is  at- 
tending law  college  preparatory  to  tak- 
ing the  bar  examination.  Many  colored 
women  have  entered  the  professions, 
making  a  creditable  showing  in  competi- 
tion with  white  rivals. 

Colored  Race  In  Professions. 

A  careful  canvass  shows  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  leading  professions  to  be: 

fetors    53 

Artists     15 

Authors    ,  18 

Clergymen     74 

Dentists    .'        '/,  32 

Lawyers    48 

Musicians  (made  up  of  4  bands,  4  Jubilee 
troupes,  5  orchestras,  28  pianists,  30  vocal- 
ists)   71 

Professional    nurses 47 

Physicians    '          "  $6 

School    teachers 41 

Total     483 

Naming  of  the  most  prominent  of  those 
who  have  risen  from  the  environment  of 
menial  tasks  which  occupy  most  of  the 
race  indicates  the  possibilities  for  the 
future. 

Edward  H.  Morris,  3757  Vernon  avenue, 
lawyer  and  twice  a  member  of  the  Illi- 
nois legislature,  is  probably  the  best 
known  professional  man  of  his  race.  He 
is  one  of  the  wealthy  men  of  Chicago  and 
the  wealthiest  colored  man  in  the  north- 
west. Among  his  own  people  his  chief 
activity  is  as  grand  master  of  their  Grand 
United  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  their  larg- 
est fraternal  organization.  He  bought  the 
Niblack  summer  home  near  Benton  Har- 
bor, Mich. 

Lawyer  Thomas  a  Pioneer. 
More  than  forty  years  ago  J.  W.  E. 
Thomas  appeared  at  the  old  Harrison 
street  police  station  to  defend  his  race- 
He  was  the  first  colored  lawyer  in  Cki- 
cago,  the  only  colored  member  of  the  re- 
publican county  central  committee,  served 
three  terms  in  the  legislature,  where  he 
put  through  a  bill  of  rights,  and  before 
he  died  accumulated  a  fortune  as  lawyer 
and  bondsman.  Many  have  come  since  his 
time. 


Most  of  the  lawyers  have  acquired 
prominence  through  activities  in  politics, 
where  the  handicap  of  color  was  less  se- 
vere. lAmong  them,  together  with  the  po- 
sitions which  they  have  held  are: 

Franklin  A.  Denison,  451  East  42d  street, 
and  S.  A.  T.  Watkins,  3332  Calumet  ave- 
nue, former  assistants  to  the  corporation 
counsel. 

S.  Laing  Williams,  4203  St.  Lawrence 
avenue,  former  assistant  district  attor- 
ney. 

Louis  B.  Anderson,  2821  Wabash  avenue, 
and  Edward  H.  Wright,  2963  Wabash  ave- 
nue, assistants  to  the  corporation  counsel. 

Ferdinand  L.  Barnett,  3234  Rhodes  ave- 
nue, former  assistant  state's  attorney. 

Edward  E.  Wilson,  3815  Vernon  avenue, 
assistant  state's  attorney. 

Jerry  Brumfield,  6209  Loomis  street,  as- 
sistant city  attorney. 

Denison  is  colonel  and  Anderson  a  cap- 
tain in  the  &th  Illinois. 

One    Moving   Picture    Censor. 

The  Rev.  A.  J.  Carey,  pastor  of  the 
Institutional  Methodist  church,  is  an- 
other appointee  in  the  corporation  coun- 
sel's office.  He  was  on  the  board  of 
moving  picture  censors.  That  place  Is 
now  held  by  Alonzo  J.  Bowling,  5363  Dear- 
born street,  who  won  It  by  civil  service. 

Assistant  Corporation  Counsel  Wright 
thinks  the  highest  honor  he  ever  re- 
ceived was  that  of  president  pro  tern  of 
the  county  board  and  head  of  the  county 
government  for  six  weeks.  He  was  a 
member  of  that  board  for  four  years. 
John  Jones,  at  that  time  one  of  the  city's 
leading  tailors  and  an  owner  of  downtown 
business  property,  was  the  first  colored 
man  elected  in  1872;  next  came  Theodore 
Jones  In  1894,  then  Wright,  later  Frank 
Leland  and  Oscar  De  Priest.  The  last 
named  is  the  2d  ward  alderman,  the  first 
of  the  race  to  hold  that  office  in  Chi- 
cago. All  are  dead  except  De  Priest  and 
Wright. 

In  the  early  '80s  Joseph  W.  Moon  was 
twice  elected  clerk  of  the  south  town. 
Henry  J.  Mitchell  and  Attorney  William 
Martin  also  held  the  office. 

State    Legislature    Has    Had    Twelve. 

Twelve  colored  men  including  the  pres- 
ent two,  who  have  been  members  of  the 
Illinois  legislature  are: 

*J.    W.    E.    Thomas,     1876-8,     1882-6. 

George  P.  Ecton,   1886-90. 

Attorney   Edward   H.    Morris,    1890-2,    1902-4. 

James    E.    Bish,    1892-4. 

*MaJ.  John  C.   Buckner.   1894-6. 

Attorney  William  L.   Martin,   1898-1900. 

*Attorney  John  G.  Jones,  1900-2. 

Edward    D.    Green,    1904-6,    1910-2. 

•Dr.    Alexander    Lane,    1906-10. 

Shederlck  B.  Turner,   1914-16. 

MaJ.    R.    R.   JacKson,    1912-18. 

Renjamln   H.   Lucas,    1916-18. 

•Deceased. 

Caring  for  the  ills  of  humanity  has  ap- 
pealed strongly  to  the  colored  men  and 


13 


women  and  more  have  secured  educations 
for  that  purpose  than  lor  any  other.  Dr. 
Daniel  H.  Williams,  446  East  42d  street, 
at  St.  Luke's  hospital;  Dr.  Allen  A.  Wes- 
ley, 3149  Prairie  avenue,  and  Dr.  George 
C.  Hall,  3408  South  Park  avenue,  at  Prov- 
ident hospital,  are  surgeons  with  few 
equals.  Dr.  U.  Grant  Dailey,  4317  For- 
restville  avenue,  graduate  of  Northwest- 
ern and  ex-president  of  the  colored  Na- 
tional Medical  association,  is  a  younger 
surgeon.  Under  President  Cleveland,  Dr. 
Williams  was  superintendent  of  the 
Freedman's  hospital  in  Washington. 

An  Expert  In   Tuberculosis. 

Dr.  A.  Wilberforce  Williams,  3408  Ver- 
non  avenue,  is  one  of  the  foremost  phy- 
sicians in  the  country  in  the  study  and 
treatment  of  tuberculosis.  Dr.  Spencer 
C.  Dickerson,  3601  State  street,  specialist 
in  eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat,  is  an  assist- 
ant professor  at  Rush  and  wears  a  "C" 
whioh  he  won  as  a  member  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  track  team. 

Dr.  Charles  E.  Bentley,  529  East  41st 
street,  is  one  of  the  leading  dentists  of 
the  city,  has  done  much  for  the  science 
of  dentistry  and  at  various  times  has  been 
an  officer  of  local  societies.  In  all  these 
professions  are  many  others  doing  cred- 
itable work,  though  they  have  not  yet  at- 
tained the  prominence  of  the  men  men- 
tioned. 


Two  women  nurses  showed  their  caliber 
in  this  year's  city  civil  service  exam- 
inations for  school  tuberculosis  nurses 
when  they  passed  first  among  fifty-Severn 
competitors.  Miss  Lulu  G.  Warlick,  16 
West  36th  street,  was  first  with  a  mark- 
ing of  97.86  per  cent,  and  Mrs.  Luemiza 
Cooper,  3717  State  street,  next  with  96.5. 
Miss  Warlick  waived  her  rights  and  is 
night  superintendent  at  Provident  hospi- 
tal. 

C.   S.   Duke  a  Harvard   Man. 

In  another  quasi-political  position  is 
Charles  S.  Duke.  4636  West  Erie  street, 
civil  engineer  with  the  city  harbor  com- 
mission. He  is  a  Harvard  graduate  and 
a  first  lieutenant  in  the  8th  Illinois  in- 
fantry. 

At  least  two  University  of  Chicago  col- 
ored graduates  have  achieved  distinction. 
Ernest  Just,  after  finishing  at  Dartmouth, 
received  his  Ph.  D.  degree  in  biology  and 
allied  subjects  from  Chicago  in  the  fall 
of  1916  and  now  is  a  professor  ni  Howard 
university  at  Washington,  D.  C.  Monroe 
M.  Work,  the  statistician  at  Tuskegee  for 
the  Negro  Yearbook,  ie  also  a  graduate 
of  the  local  university. 

"On  the  day  Just  graduated  with  his 
high  honors  the  newspapers  did  not  men- 
tion it,"  said  Dr.  Bentley.  "One  reason 
why  so  many  fail  to  realize  what  the 
negro  is  doing  is  made  clear." 


14 


CHAPTER  VI 


Musicians,  Artists,  Writers,  and  the  Stray  Genius 


In  one  of  the  most  notorious  of  the 
South  State  street  cabaret  saloons  which 
cater  to  late  carousers  of  all  colors  and 
both  sexes  a  dark  skinned  colored  man 
with  protruding  lips  and  a  shock  of  white 
hair  over  his  forehead  plays  the  piano 
through  the  night.  Occasionally  he 
glances  at  a  sheet  of  music.  Most  of  the 
time  his  eyes  are  roving  around  the  room 
while  his  long  legs  are  doubled  under  the 
chair  and  his  lean  body  is  twisted  into 
an  impossible  position  so  he  can  hold  an 
ear  toward  the  keyboard  as  if  the  piano 
were  talking  to  him  alone. 

Few  of  the  hundreds  of  early  morning 
"slummers"  who  come  there  would  recog- 
nize the  name  of  Tony  Jackson.  Even 
fewer  of  the  thousands  who  have  seen 
the  name  know  that  he  is  a  piano  pounder 
in  a  notorious  cabaret.  Tony  Jackson 
wrote  "Pretty  Baby,"  a  song  feature  of 
the  "Follies,"  considered  by  many  the 
popular  song  hit  of  the  year.  He  received 
$45  for  it.  Its  sales  netted  thousands.  He 
has  another  one,  "Some  Sweet  Day," 
waiting  to  be  published.  Tony  Jackson 
is  a  natural  genius.  He  is  not  the  most 
finished  musician,  the  best  skilled  in 
technique  nor  the  most  prolific  writer. 
He  is  a  remarkable  figure  of  the  moment. 

Music  Note*    in    Shorthand. 

Clarence  M.  Jones,  11  East  38th  street, 
is  a  writer  of  popular  songs  who  has  both 
the  natural  ear  and  the  technical  train- 
ing. He  plays  the  piano  in  a  theater  at 
night  and  by  day  writes  music  for  one 
company  and  makes  player-piano  rolls 
for  another.  He  can  take  down  by  short- 
hand a  whistled  or  hummed  melody  and 
play  it  from  the  notes  as  a  stenographer 
would  write  a  letter.  He  can  run  through 
the  score  of  an  opera  once  and  after  that 
play  it  by  ear.  He  can  call  any  note  as 
it  is  sounded  on  a  musical  instrument. 
"One  Wonderful  Night,"  "Just  Because 
You  Won  My  Heart"  and  "La  Danza  Ap- 
passionata"  are  among  his  compositions. 
Now  he  is  working  on  a  song  "that  will 
live,"  as  he  says. 

Dave  Peyton,  leader  of  the  orchestra 
at  another  theater,  is  also  a  musical 
genius  in  arranging,  though  no  composi- 
tions bear  his  name. 

"Chemise  Chihuahua,"  "I  Ain't  Got  No- 
body" and  several  others  of  jangling  ideas 
and  harmonies  were  written  by  Spencer 
W.  Williams,  3334  Prairie  avenue,  whose 
regular  occupation  is  porter  on  a  sleep- 
ing car. 

Even  better  known  are  "Walkin"  the 
Dog,"  "All  Night  Long,'1  "Some  of  These 
Days"  and  other  productions  of  Shelton 
Brooks,  a  Chicago  boy,  who  now  is  on  the 
vaudeville  circuit. 

"Brazilian  Dreams"  was  another  hit  of 
this  year's  Follies.  It  was  the  work  of 
Will  H.  Dixon,  5440  Dearborn  street. 


One   Snngr  by   Schumann-Heinle. 

"If  I  Forget,"  whose  sale  runs  into  the 
tens  of  thousands,  goes  into  the  realm  of 
music  worth  while.  It  was  made  popu- 
lar by  Mme.  Schumann-Heink.  Alfred 
Anderson  wrote  the  lyrics  and  DeKoven 
Thompson  the  music.  After  many  vain 
efforts  to  get  an  audience  one  of  the  col- 
ored men  slipped  the  manuscript  into  the 
famous  singer's  hands  as  she  was  taking 
a  train  to  leave  Chicago.  It  and  "Dear 
Lord,  Remember  Me,"  are  Thompson's 
best  musical  efforts.  Anderson  is  clerk 
in  charge  at  Provident  hospital,  editorial 
writer  for  the  Defender,  and  a  prolific 
composer.  He  wrote  "Rag-ma-la,"  one 
of  the  first  "rags";  "My  Twilight  Dream 
of  You,"  which  was  sung  by  Jessie  Bart- 
lett  Davis;  the  book  for  the  opera  "Cap- 
tain Rufus";  a  three-reeler,  "For  the 
Honor  of  the  Eighth,"  and  much  more. 

Fenton  Johnson,  3026  Vernon  avenue, 
editor  of  the  Champion,  is  a  writer  of 
poems  which  have  attracted  wide  atten- 
tion. Most  of  them  are  in  a  volume,  "A 
Little  Dreaming."  W.  H.  A.  Moore  is  an- 
other colored  poet  of  note. 

The  late  Paul  Laurence  Dunbar  of  Day- 
ton, 0.,  the  greatest  poet  of  the  race,  did 
some  of  his  best  work  in  Chicago.  Rich- 
ard B.  Harrison,  3327  Calumet  avenue,  is 
one  of  the  many  dramatic  readers  of  his 
works. 

Others   in   Musical   Circles. 

Mme.  Anita  Patti  Brown.  3827  Wabash 
avenue;  Mme.  Florence  Cole  Talbert,  3617 
Forest  avenue;  Mme.  E.  Azalla  Hackley, 
3019  Calumet  avenue;  Mrs.  Willa  Sloan, 
6523  St.  Lawrence  avenue;  Miss  Maud  J. 
Roberts,  3231  Vernon  avenue;  Mme.  M. 
Galloway  Byron,  3300  Rhodes  avenue; 
Mrs.  Martha  Broadus  Anderson,  6450 
Champlain  avenue;  Mrs.  Julia  B.  Ander- 
son, 2831  Wabash  avenue;  Mrs.  Mary  Odd- 
rick,  4434  Langiey  avenue;  Mrs.  Annie 
Hackley.  3452  Forest  avenue.  Mme.  Marie 
Burton-Hyram,  3828  Dearborn  street; 
T.  Theodore  Taylor,  3558  Rhodes  avenue; 
Pauline  Garner,  5229  Wabash  avenue; 
Harrison  Emanuel,  6352  Rhodes  avenue, 
are  a  few  of  those  in  Chicago  musical 
circles.  Mme.  Byron  is  abroad.  Others 
are  touring  thie  country.  Mme.  Talbert 
won  the  diamond  medal  at  the  Chicago 
Musical  college  In  1916.  Mrs.  Hackley 
and  Mrs.  Oddrick  won  medals  in  previous 
years'  contests.  Mrs.  Julia  Anderson  was 
the  first  colored  graduate  of  the  Chicago 
Musical  college  and  won  the  harmony 
medal. 

The  old  Pekin  theater,  2700  South  State 
street,  run  by  the  late  Bob  Mott  and 
Harrison  Stewart,  gave  the  start  to  most 
of  the  theatrical  performers  of  the  race 
on  the  stage  to-day. 

Church  choirs  and  jubilee  troupes 
abound.  That  of  the  Bethel  church  is  un- 
der James  A.  Mundy,  who  organized  the 


15 


chorus  of  600  voices  which  sang  at  the 
celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
negro  freedom.  "Ethiopia,"  composed  by 
Frank  O.  Raines,  was  the  popular  draw- 
ing card.  Pedro  T.  Tinsley,  6448  Drexel 
avenue,  is  an  old  time  choral  leader, 
whose  "Harmony"  is  a  textbook. 

William  M.  Farrow.  6117  South  Racine 
avenue;  B.  E.  Fountaine.  3462  Vernon 
avenue,  painters;  F.  Langston  Mitchell, 
3800  Rhodes  avenue;  Proctor  Chisholm, 
3502  Vernon  avenue,  and  Fon  Holly,  car- 
toonists, are  the  race's  contributors  to 
art. 

Negro   Writers  on   Negro  Problem. 

Many  have  turned  their  hand  to  writ- 
ing. Prof.  Richard  T.  Greener,  former 
consul  to  Vladivostock,  and  the  first  col- 
ored man  to  graduate  from  Harvard,  and 
Attorney  George  W.  Ellis,  F.  R.  G.  S., 
3262  Vernon  avenue,  have  dealt  exten- 
sively with  the  negro  problem.  Maj.  John 
Roy  Lynch,  4352  Forrestville  avenue,  re- 
tired army  paymaster,  three  times  con- 
gressman from  Mississippi,  and  ex-assist- 
ant auditor  of  the  treasury,  is  another. 
W.  H.  Ferris,  3359  Wabash  avenue,  a  Yale 
man,  is  the  author  of  a  most  pretentious 
work  on  the  race. 

The  Defender,  published  by  R.  S.  Ab- 
bott, at  3159  South  State  street,  is  said 
to  have  the  largest  circulation  of  papers 
of  its  kind  in  the  United  States.  Eleven 
years  ago  Editor  Abbott  founded  it  on  a 
capital  of  25  cents,  a  lead  pencil  and 
scratchpad,  backed  by  a  degree  from 
Hampton  college  and  practical  experience 


as  a  printer.  Frank  A.  Young  \e  man- 
aging editor  and  Gary  B.  Lewis,  who 
was  given  a  start  by  Col.  Watterson  in 
Louisville,  is  city  editor. 

The  Broad  Ax,  edited  by  Julius  F.  Tay- 
lor, 6418  Champlain  avenue,  and  the  Illi- 
nois Idea,  by  S.  B.  Turner,  former  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature,  are  the  other  two 
local  weeklies.  Among  monthly  maga- 
zines there  are  the  Champion,  the  Half- 
Century,  the  Pullman  Porter,  the  Frater- 
nal Advocate  and  the  Stroller. 

E.  R.  Robinson,  3236  Calumet  avenue, 
inventor  of  a  street  car  wheel  and  a 
joltless  auto  wheel,  claims  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars'  damages  from  the 
street  car  companies  for  infringements 
on  his  patent.  John  T.  Baker  has  in- 
vented a  friction  heater,  an  army  kitchen 
and  refrigerator  and  several  other  de- 
vices. J.  P.  Norwood,  3759  Wabash  ave- 
nue, has  a  bread  wrapping  machine  and  a 
rotary  toothbrush. 

Earl  Gordon.  4632  Winthrop  avenue, 
may  not  be  a  genius,  but  surely  is  a 
curiosity.  He  is  a  private  chauffeur  and 
has  a  diamond  set  medal  for  driving  100,- 
000  miles  without  an  accident.  He  did  it 
in  seven  years. 

Last  but  not  least  among  the  men  of 
talent  Is  Andrew  ("Rube")  Foster,  3242 
Vernon  avenue,  manager  of  the  American 
Giants,  a  formidable  figure  in  "semipro" 
baseball  and  the  highest  paid  colored 
manager  in  the  world.  The  team  is  owned 
by  John  Schorling,  429  West  79th  street, 
a  white  saloonkeeper. 


16 


CHAPTER  VII 


Apartments  for  Colored  Families;  Two  Great  Institutions 


Plans  have  been  completed  for  one  of 
the  finest  and  most  modern  apartment 
houses  in  the  city,  to  be  ready  for  occu- 
pancy in  the  summer  of  1917,  exclusively 
by  colored  tenants.  Julius  Rosenwald, 
who  has  given  $500.000  for  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
buildings  and  rural  schools  for  colored 
people,  is  back  of  the  project  financially. 
It  is  in  a  way  an  experiment,  but  those 
who  enthusiastically  prophesy  its  success 
declare  that  it  will  be  the  forerunner  of 
others  of  the  same  type  in  different  parts 
of  the  city. 

The  northeast  corner  of  Vernon  avenue 
and  East  32d  street,  adjoining  the  Rhodes 
avenue  hospital,  has  been  secured  for  the 
site.  Plans  for  the  building  drawn  by 
Zimmerman,  Saxe  &  Zimmerman  are  now 
in  the  hands  of  Whiteside  &  Wentworth, 
who  will  handle  the  property.  It  is  to  be 
of  the  English  basement  type  with  three 
floors  of  apartments,  making  it  a  four 
etory  structure.  It  will  contain  sixty 
apartments,  each  having  two  and  three 
rooms  and  a  bath.  The  building  will 
have  its  own  refrigerating  system  con- 
necting with  each  apartment.  It  also 
will  have  an  incinerator  system  connect- 
ing with  each  apartment,  steam  heat,  hot 
and  cold  water,  basement  laundries  and 
janitor  service.  The  outside  will  be  fin- 
ished In  dark  red  brick.  Along  Vernon 
avenue  will  be  a  fifteen  foot  width  of 
lawn  and  terrace.  On  the  32d  street  side 
will  be  a  garden  court  and  fountain  on 
which  many  of  the  apartmerts  will  face. 

Rents  from  918  Up  to  $38. 

Rents  will  be  from  $18  to  $38  a  month. 
The  Investment  is  expected  to  be  slightly 
more  than  $125,000  and  a  return  of  at 
least  5  per  cent  on  the  investment  is  ex- 
pected. Each  floor  will  be  the  same  in 
arrangement.  The  number  of  apart- 
ments of  each  class  and  the  rental  re- 
turn for  the  building  is  planned  to  be: 


Rent 
rate. 
$18    ... 
19    ... 
22    ... 
32    ... 
83    . 

Apts. 
...6. 
...27. 
...  3. 
...  «. 
..  9. 

Monthly 
total. 
$108 
818 
66 
192 
..  297 

R«nt 
rate. 
$34    .... 
36    . 

Apts. 
..  3... 
..3.. 

Monthly 
total. 
$102 
..  108 

38    

..8.. 

114 

Totals 

.60... 

...$1,500 

On  this  basis  the  building  will  bring 
In  an  annual  gross  return  of  $18,000.  The 
5  per  cent  desired  on  the  investment 
would  be  $6,250. 

The  thirty-six  small  flats  are  each  to 
have  a  12  by  14  foot  living  room,  with  an 
in-a-door  bed  and  closet,  an  8  by  14 
kitchen  and  a  separate  bathroom. 

The  twenty-four  larger  flats  are  to 
have  chambers  13  by  15  feet  with  an  in-a- 
door  bed  and  closet,  living  rooms  12  by 
14  with  an  in-a-door  bed,  8  by  9  porches 
from  one  room  and  a  balcony  from  the 
other,  and  the  same  sized  kitchens  and 
bathrooms  as  the  other  flats. 


Innovation   in   Building?  Line. 

Considerable  investigating  was  done 
before  this  innovation  in  the  building  line 
was  decided  on.  Dr.  George  C.  Hall, 
chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of 
the  Wabash  Avenue  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  A.  L. 
Jackson,  secretary,  made  a  trip  to  Cin- 
cinnati, where  J.  C.  Schmidlapp  has  in- 
vested $500,000  in  model  buildings  for  col- 
ored tenants.  Some  of  the  Schmidlapp 
buildings  are  extremely  plain  and  apart- 
ments rent  for  $1  a  week  a  room. 

This  new  apartment  house  is  expected 
to  play  a  great  part  in  the  social  eco- 
nomic and  moral  life  of  the  people.  On 
account  of  the  effect  which  it  will  have 
on  the  future  it  may  be  classed  as  an 
institution.  Two  Chicago  institutions  al- 
ready stand  out  prominently  among  thooe 
in  which  colored  men  are  the  guiding 
spirits.  They  are  the  Provident  hospital 
at  16  West  36th  street  and  the  Wabash 
Avenue  department  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
at  3763  South  Wabash  avenue.  The  hos- 
pital has  passed  its  twenty-fifth  year. 
The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  comparatively  new. 

Provident  Hospital  Is  Notable. 

Provident  hospital  gives  a  greater  op- 
portunity to  the  colored  physician  than 
any  other  institution  in  the  country. 
Freedman's  hospital  in  Washington  is 
larger  and  Douglas  hospital  in  Philadel- 
phia is  almost  as  large,  but  they  are 
supported  respectively  by  government 
and  state  aid,  so  that  Provident  hospital 
is  in  a  class  by  itself.  With  the  Nathan 
M.  Freer  $30,000  home  for  nurses,  the 
plant  represents  an  investment  of  $125,- 
000  and  is  free  from  debt.  It  has  an  an- 
nual expenditure  of  $28,000  and  the  outlay 
Is  made  without  a  breath  of  scandal. 

Of  its  patients  at  present  60  per  cent 
are  colored  and  40  per  cent  are  white. 
The  ratio  varies.  One-third  of  the  suf- 
ferers are  charity  patients.  The  phy- 
sicians' staff  and  dispensary  force  are 
made  up  of  both  white  and  colored 
people.  The  nurses,  except  the  superin- 
tendent, Miss  Astrid  Hofseth,  are  all 
colored.  The  last  anuual  report  shows 
a  daily  average  of  thirty-four  patients  for 
the  hospital,  a  total  of  987  for  the  year, 
or  17,689  since  the  institution  was  found- 
ed. The  dispensary  shows  3,017  persons 
for  the  year  and  a  total  of  88,827. 

The  nativity  of  those  in  the  hospital  in 
1915  was:  Afro-American,  712;  Irish,  45; 
American,  38;  German,  34;  Polish,  22; 
Jewish,  10;  Lithuanian,  7;  English  and 
Italian,  4  each;  Bohemian,  Danish,  Greek, 
Scotch  and  Swedish,  3  each;  French  and 
Hungarian,  2  each;  Austrian,  Bulgarian, 
Finlandic,  Jamaican,  Norwegian  and  Rus- 
sian, 1  each. 

George  H.  Webster,  who  died  late  in 
1916,  was  president  of  the  hospital  for 
twenty  years.  The  late  Lloyd  S.  Wheel- 
er, a  colored  man  who  later  was  man- 


17 


ager  at  Tuskegee,  was  Its  first  president. 
Philip  D.  Armour.  Marshall  Field  and 
George  M.  Pullman,  all  deceased,  and 
H.  H.  Kohlsaat  were  the  donors  who 
made  the  institute  possible.  Dr.  Charles 
B.  Bentley  is  its  secretary,  James  S.  Mad- 
den is  treasurer  and  Attorney  Robert  Mc- 
Murdy  is  chairman  of  the  finance  commit- 
tee. 

V.   M.    C.    A.   Has   1,329   Members. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  a  physical  plant 
costing  $185,000.  It  has  1,329  members, 
150  living  in  its  dormitories  and  125 
attending  its  automobile  school.  It  has 
secured  jobs  for  500  persons  this  year. 
It  sent  Dr.  G.  C.  Booth,  a  university  of 
Michigan  graduate,  .to  the  Mexican  bor- 


der as  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  with  the 
8th  Illinois  regiment.  Members  of  the 
Wabash  avenue  department  can  stop  at 
the  $1,350,000  hotel  at  822  South  Wabash 
avenue.  Several  have  done  so,  but  most 
of  the  strangers  who  come  from  out  of 
the  city  and  are  referred  to  the  hotel  on 
account  of  overcrowded  dormitories  pre- 
fer to  remain  among  their  own  race.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  for 
good  in  a  section  of  the  community 
abounding  in  destructive  agencies. 

''The  negro  youth  needs  everything  that 
the  white  boy  needs  and  more,"  said  Sec- 
retary Jackson.  "We  are  doing  a  great 
work  for  the  young  man  by  helping  him 
and  for  the  race  in  general  by  showing 
that  it  has  individuals  who  ar«j  sincere, 
reliable  and  actuated  by  high  motives." 


18 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Churches  and  Charitable  Institutions 


Churches  probably  wield  more  power 
among  the  colored  people  than  among  any 
other  single  class  in  the  United  States. 
Religion  is  an  intimate  part  of  life  to 
most  colored  persons.  The  churches  are 
an  influence  for  good  citizenship  and  an 
educational  factor  second  only  to  the 
public  schools.  They  have  clergymen 
powerful  as  exhorters,  and  surrounded  by 
thousands  of  devout  followers. 

A  canvass  of  all  the  churches  made  by 
The  Daily  News  shows  that  they  claim 
42.5  per  cent  of  the  city's  colored  popula- 
tion as  church  members.  Attending  church 
is  taken  up  with  enthusiasm  and  religious 
services  are  made  a  pleasure.  Few 
other  churches  in  the  city  have  as  large 
congregations  as  several  of  the  leading 
colored  churches.  From  this  high  stand- 
ard the  congregations  diminish  in  size 
and  influence  down  to  the  private  ven- 
tures where  a  "brother"  or  "sister"  with 
a  can  of  paint  and  a  brush  has  converted 
a  vacant  store  into  a  mission.  Sometimes 
a  "mission"  is  started  and  runs  a  strong 
lunged  exhortation,  followed  by  a  collec- 
tion or  a  rummage  sale  to  make  it  worth 
while. 

Activities    of    the    Churches. 

The  big  churches  are  financially  pros- 
perous. They  have  employment  agencies, 
day  nurseries  literary  societies,  drill 
teams  and  classes  of  various  kinds.  They 
do  more  or  less  charity  work  among  their 
own  people.  Some  of  them,  Walters  A.  M. 
E.  Zion,  at  West  38th  and  South  Dearborn 
streets,  and  the  Institutional.  3825  South 
Dearborn  street,  among  others,  are  open 
twenty-four  hours  a  day  to  give  shelter 
and  help  to  all  who  call. 

In  civic  life  outside  their  own  doors 
the  churches  apparently  do  not  have  the 
influence  to  which  they  are  entitled.  Two 
of  them  protested  in  vain  against  dif- 
ferent saloons  a  few  doors  distant,  whith- 
er boys  and  girls  were  turning  their 
steps.  The  Rev.  A.  J.  Carey,  one  of  the 
leading  pastors,  has  received  political 
preferment  and  others  have  been  smiled 
on  by  the  powers  that  be.  But  with 
their  thousands  of  devoted  followers,  the 
colored  clergyman,  as  a  rule,  has  not  due 
prominence  among  those  working  outside 
his  church  to  better  conditions  among 
his  people.  Recently  several  clergymen 
passed  resolutions  indorsing  the  city  ad- 
ministration regardless  of  the  wide  open 
haunts  of  vice  thrown  in  among  their 
people. 

"Too  many  of  our  clergymen  do  not 
have  the  courage  of  their  convictions  and 
will  not  lead  a  determined  fight  against 
evil  influences  and  institutions  which  en- 
croach on  their  neighborhoods,  usually 
conducted  by  white  men,"  said  a  colored 
man  who  has  been  active  in  many  of  the 
efforts  to  keep  saloons  away  from  the 
churches  and  out  of  the  residence  dis- 


tricts. "A  campaign  contribution  to  the 
cnurch  from  this  or  that  politician  has 
In  some  instances  silenced  criticism." 

Denominations   In  the  City. 

Denominationally  and  according  to 
numbers,  the  Chicago  colored  churches 
are  divided  as  follows: 

Denomination—  Churches. MemBeri. 

Baptist 36  12.230 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  14  10,390 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  2  850 

Methodist  Episcopal  4  1,750 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion..  2  1,050 

Presbyterian 2  1.500 

Christian  2  900 

Congregational  2  1,100 

Episcopal  1  1,000 

Roman  Catholic  1  650 

Miscellaneous  3  450 


Totals 


.60          31.870 


Some   of   the    Largest   Churches. 

Membership  in  the  various  churches 
varies  from  tens  and  twenties  to  3,500  at 
the  largest.  Olivet  Baptist,  West  27th  and 
South  Dearborn  streets,  of  which  the 
Rev.  Dr.  L.  K.  Williams  is  pastor,  is 
the  largest  church  of  the  Baptist  de- 
nomination in  the  west.  The  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  has  a  num- 
ber of  large  congregations.  Bethel,  2979 
South  Dearborn  street,  the  Rev.  Dr.  W. 
D.  Cook,  pastor,  has  3,000  members; 
Quinn  chapel,  the  oldest  colored  church 
in  the  city,  2401  South  Wabash  avenue, 
the  Rev.  J.  C.  Anderson,  pastor,  has 
2,000;  Institutional,  3825  South  Dearborn 
street,  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Carey,  pastor,  has 
1,500.  St.  Mark's  Methodist  Episcopal 
church.  5001  South  Wabash  avenue,  the 
Rev.  J.  W.  Robinson,  pastor;  St.  Thomas' 
Episcopal  church,  East  38th  street  and 
South  Wabash  avenue,  the  Rev.  J.  H. 
Simons,  pastor,  and  Salem  Baptist 
church,  West  30th  and  South  LaSalle 
streets,  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Heywood,  pastor, 
each  touch  the  1,000  mark. 

The  Rev.  J.  T.  Jenifer,  3430  Vernon 
avenue,  now  historian  of  the  A.  M.  E. 
church,  built  the  present  Quinn  chapel. 
It  was  the  first  colored  church  and  the 
fourth  Protestant  one  in  the  city  when 
started  by  the  late  Rev.  A.  F.  Hall.  An- 
other preacher  of  force  was  the  late  Rev. 
Elijah  J.  Fisher,  a  colored  veteran  who 
had  lost  his  left  leg  and  held  a  doctor's 
degree  from  the  University  of  Chicago. 
Until  his  death  recently  he  was  for  twelve 
years  the  powerful  leader  of  Olivet. 

According  to  the  Rev.  R.  E.  Wilson, 
4830  Langley  avenue,  superintendent  of 
the  Chicago  district  of  the  A.  M.  E. 
church,  the  orders  of  deaconesses  and 
stewardesses  of  the  Institutional  church 
do  an  immense  amount  of  extension  work 
among  the  people.  The  Chicago  Choral 
Study  club  makes  its  headquarters  at  this 
church. 


19 


The  Rev.  J.  P.  Thomas,  an  old-time 
preacher,  has  one  of  the  largest  follow- 
ings  In  the  city  at  the  Ebenezer  Baptist 
church.  Last  winter  he  doled  out  soup 
and  meals  to  more  than  3,000  hungry  in 
his  church.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Moses  H.  Jack- 
son of  the  Grace  Presbyterian  is  another 
powerful  leader  whose  scarred  back 
shows  the  marks  of  slavery  days.  He  has 
been  in  Chicago  twenty-nine  years.  The 
church  has  the  largest  Sunday  school  and 
lyceum  in  the  city. 

Many   Settlements  and  Home*. 

Closely  pressing  the  churches  in  gen- 
eral good  done,  even  though  far  less 
prosperous  and  less  powerful,  are  the 
settlements  and  homes,  in  most  instances 
founded  and  supported  by  a  few  self- 
sacrificing  individuals. 

The  Frederick  Douglass  center,  3032 
South  Wabash  avenue,  was  organized  in 
1904.  by  Mrs.  Celia  Parker  Woolley,  its 
head  resident,  and  her  husband,  Dr.  Wool- 
ley.  All  its  residents  are  white,  though 
most  of  the  trustees  are  colored.  It  has 
day  and  night  classes  and  clubs.  Mrs. 
Woolley  has  given  freely  of  her  time 
working  as  a  pioneer  for  a  better  under- 
standing between  the  races. 

Other  worthy  settlements  and  institu- 
tions are: 

Wendell  Phillips  settlement,  2009  Wal- 
nut street. 

Miss  Cloter  Scott  settlement,  4706  South 
Wabash  avenue. 

Negro  Fellowship  league,  3005  South 
State  street. 

Louise  Training  School  for  Colored 
Boys,  6130  South  Ada  street. 

Home  for  Aged  and  Infirm  Colored  Peo- 
ple, 510  West  Garfleld  boulevard. 

Y.  W.  C.  A.,  colored  branch,  3424  Rhodes 
avenue. 

Phyllis  Wheatley  home,  3256  Rhodes 
avenue. 

Old  Soldiers'  Widows'  Rest,  3258  Forest 
avenue. 

Amanda  Smith  Industrial  School  for 
Girls,  307  West  147th  street,  Harvey. 

The  Amanda  Smith  school  was  estab- 
lished as  an  orphanage  by  the  evangelist 
of  that  name  eighteen  years  ago.  It  now 
is  directed  by  a  board  of  which  E.  C. 
Wentworth  is  president  and  treasurer 
and  Mrs.  Charles  Henrotin  is  vice-presi- 
dent. Most  of  the  other  officers  and  di- 
rectors also  are  white.  Forty  girls  are 
in  the  school,  many  of  them  sent  by  the 
County  courts,  for  which  $15  a  month  is 
paid.  Miss  Ruth  E.  Wilkins  is  superintend- 
ent. The  institution  depends  on  private 
contributions  to  extend  its  work. 

The  Louise  Training  school  does  a  sim- 
ilar work  among  boys  from  the  Juvenile 
court.  It  was  started  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth 


McDonald,  for  many  years  a  probation  of- 
ficer, who  is  ite  superintendent.  Between 
forty-four  and  sixty  boys  are  cared  for. 

The  Home  for  the  Aged  by  a  deter- 
mined fight  for  twenty-five  years  of  its 
existence  now  is,  through  the  efforts  of  a 
new  board  of  directors,  in  the  best  finan- 
cial condition  of  its  career.  It  is  sup- 
ported by  voluntary  contributions,  prac- 
tically all  from  colored  people,  and  has 
an  annual  expense  of  $2,500.  Sixteen  aged 
persons  are  in  the  institution.  Frank  S. 
Hamilton,  2831  Wabaeh  avenue,  a  dining 
car  conductor,  is  its  president,  and  Dr. 
Charles  L.  Lewis.  3801  South  State  street, 
is  its  secretary.  The  Amateur  Minstrel 
club  cleared  $1,000  for  it  at  one  of  the 
largest  benefits  ever  given. 

In  the  world  of  clubs,  fraternal  and 
military  organizations,  the  colored  people 
are  active.  The  Appomattox  club,  which 
owns  its  own  property  at  3441  South  Wa- 
bash avenue,  is  run  on  a  pretentious 
scale,  providing  social  life  and  recreation 
for  Its  members,  and  aiming  to  lead  in 
civic  advancement  for  its  people.  The 
Easter  Lily  club  is  said  to  be  the  largest 
single  organization  of  colored  women  in 
the  country.  There  is  a  state  and  a  city 
federation  of  women's  clubs,  containing 
some  sixty-five  organizations. 

Fraternal  Societies  Popular. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  nearly  every  col- 
ored man  of  means  belongs  to  one  or  more 
fraternal  organizations.  Their  uniformed 
ranks  are  a  pride  and  joy.  Fraternal  or- 
ganizations gratify  a  love  for  pomp,  pag- 
eantry and  mystery,  but  their  activity  for 
good  extends  only  indirectly  beyond  their 
own  circles  of  membership. 

The  greatest  public  organization  is  the 
8th  infantry  regiment,  I.  N.  G.,  which, 
overcoming  obstacles  within  and  luke- 
warm .support  without,  has  grown  into  a 
strong  military  unit,  with  an  armory  of 
its  own  at  3517  Forest  avenue.  It  was  the 
only  colored  military  regiment  to  be 
called  to  the  border  in  the  recent  mobili- 
zation. Its  col'onel,  Franklin  A.  Denison, 
is  a  leading  colored  lawyer  of  Chicago, 
Its  lieutenant-colonel,  James  H.  Johnson, 
is  division  auditor  for  the  Pullman  com- 
pany, and  the  major  its  first  battalion,  R. 
R.  Jackson,  is  a  state  legislator,  propri- 
etor of  a  printing  establishment  and  prob- 
ably the  most  popular  colored  man  in 
office. 

The  inception  of  the  8tb  regiment  came 
in  the  Hannibal  zouaves  which  were  or- 
ganized in  1869.  Robert  E.  Moore,  3265 
Vernon  avenue,  their  captain,  still  has 
the  old  colors  and  standards.  As  the 
boys  grew  older  they  became  the  Han- 
nibal guards  and  later  two  companies  of 
the  old  16th  battalion. 


20 


CHAPTER  IX 


Public  Schools  and  Opportunities  in  Civil  Service 


Since  the  first  colored  children  in  Chi- 
cago trudged  with  their  books  to  the 
old  Third  avenue  school — even  the  name 
of  the  street  has  been  changed — the  at- 
tendance of  colored  children  has  grown 
steadily  until  more  than  4,500  are  in  the 
public  schools  to-day.  Many  years  ago 
the  Third  Avenue  school,  taught  by  a 
Mrs.  Dewey,  was  the  only  one  which  they 
attended.  Attendance  at  other  schools 
required  physical  hardihood  on  the  part 
of  the  colored  pupils.  Conditions  have 
changed  since  then  and  they  now  attend 
the  public  educational  institutions  most 
convenient  to  their  homes. 

In  certain  schools  the  attendance  of 
colored  pupils  is  large  on  account  of  the 
location  of  the  residence  areas  of  col- 
ored families.  A  canvass  of  twelve  of 
the  schools  showed  an  attendance  of  4,276 
colored  pupils.  Several  hundred  more  are 
scattered  among  other  schools.  Of  the 
high  schools,  the  Wendell  Phillips,  at 
3825  Prairie  avenue,  has  the  largest  at- 
tendance of  colored  pupils.  This  is  on 
account  of  its  situation  and  not  because 
of  any  sentimental  preference  for  a 
school  named  after  the  noted  abolitionist. 
Out  of  its  1,670  pupils  352,  or  about  21 
per  cent,  are  colored. 

In  the  elementary  schools  the  propor- 
tion varies  from  90  per  cent  for  one 
school  down  to  less  than  1  per  cent  for 
others.  One  school  has  936  pupils,  of 
whom  711  are  colored. 

Colored  Attendance  at  School. 

Though  these  figures  seem  large,  col- 
ored pupils  number  only  1.3  per  cent 
of  the  city's  school  attendance  of  350,000. 
In  the  city's  population,  3  per  cent  is 
colored.  The  ratio  should  be  the  same 
between  adults  and  pupils  if  the  colored 
children  were  attending  school  in  proper 
numbers.  Making  the  comparison  from 
another  angle,  out  of  the  city's  total 
population  about  one  in  every  seven  is 
attending  a  public  school.  The  ratio 
would  be  lower  if  private  schools  were 
added.  Out  of  the  city's  colored  popu- 
lation only  one  in  every  fourteen  is  at- 
tending school. 

Truancy   Same  as   the   "Whites. 

"Our  records  show  that  among  colored 
children  of  the  compulsory  school  age, 
the  percentage  of  truancy  is  not  any 
larger  than  among  the  white  race,"  said 
W.  Lester  Bodine,  superintendent  of  com- 
pulsory education.  "Their  scholarship 
records  compare  favorably,  they  are 
equally  eager  to  learn  and  in  some  in- 
stances have  taken  honors  in  their  class- 
es. However,  the  future  of  the  colored 
child  is  a  big  question.  Many  of  them 
must  work  for  a  living  and  start  in  after 
they  reach  the  age  of  14  years.  In  the 
south  there  are  practically  no  compulsory 


school  laws  for  colored  children  and  many 
families  migrating  here  wait  until  their 
children  are  14  years  old.  Comparatively 
few  colored  pupils  are  in  the  night 
schools." 

Opportunities  for  education  are  strong 
factors  in  attracting  the  more  indus- 
trious colored  families  from  the  southern 
states  to  the  north.  Schooling  is  the 
same  for  all,  regardless  of  race  or  color. 
The  law  requires  that  the  child  attend 
school. 

In  striking  contrast  are  the  opportuni- 
ties in  the  south,  according  to  figures 
compiled  at  Tuskegee  institute.  They 
show  how  many  days  the  colored  schools 
are  open  in  a  year,  the  number  of  days 
possible  for  each  colored  child  if  all  at- 
tended, the  percentage  of  children  at- 
tending, the  average  days  of  attendance 
for  each  one  and  the  years  it  would  take 
to  complete  an  elementary  course. 

Figures  from  Southern  States. 

The  figures  are: 

Yeari 

Days  to 

Days       Per    Pet.  at-    foi  ea.ch  corn- 
State—           open,    child,    tending,  child,  plete. 
South    Carolina  67          26          68.4          44  33 

Louisiana     86          23          40.1          58  25 

Alabama    104          27          41.8          66  22 

Nor.   Carolina..  115          50          75.0          72  20 

Florida     98          43           64.8          72  20 

Georgia    123          48           65.4          74  19 

Virginia   121           47           56.0          76  19 

Texas    124          47           58.8          80  18 

Maryland   163          57          66.4          91  16 

Other  states  which  the  Negro  year-book 
lists  as  having  separate  appropriations 
for  colored  schools  are  Arkansas,  Dela- 
ware, Kentucky,  Mississippi,  Missouri, 
Oklahoma.  Tennessee,  West  Virginia  and 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  several  of 
these  the  expenditure  for  colored  pupils 
accords  with  the  proportion  which  they 
make  of  the  population.  In  South  Caro- 
lina they  are  55.2  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation and  they  get  13  per  cent  of  the 
school  money,  which  is  the  other  extreme. 

Race  Troubles   Rare. 

Race  troubles  among  pupils  in  Chica- 
go's public  schools  have  been  rare  in 
recent  years.  In  classroom,  work,  athletic 
games  and  such  other  school  activities  as 
are  under  the  direction  of  the  board  of 
education  all  are  on  equal  footing.  A 
frequent  contention  is  that  colored  pupils 
and  white  pupils  would  progress  faster  if 
they  had  separate  classes  and  different 
methods  of  teaching.  This  view  is  dis- 
puted. 

'In  scholarship,  ability  to  learn  and 
application  and  classroom  work  the 
colored  pupils  average  up  with  the  white 
pupils,"  said  >a  principal  who  has  had  ex- 
perience with  thousands  of  both  races  in 
the  last  ten  years.  "One  handicap  which 
may  be  more  common  among  colored 
than  among  the  white  pupils  is  that  the 


21 


home  environment  is  not  always  as  help- 
ful as  it  might  be,  for  the  parents  from 
economic  or  other  reasons  have  not  had 
any  such  opportunities  to  learn  as  have 
the  children.  Among  the  children  in 
school  there  is  no  trouble.  When  trouble 
does  come  it  usually  starts  in  the  homes." 

Work  for  Colored  Graduates. 

"What  work  can  I  get  if  I  go  through 
school?"  is  the  regular  question  of  the 
truant  colored  boy,  according  to  H.  W. 
Hammond,  juvenile  court  probation  officer 
and  graduate  of  New  York  university. 

Hundreds  of  colored  men  and  women 
are  holding  clerical  positions  which  they 
could  not  have  obtained  if  it  had  not  been 
for  public  school  educations.  Some  are 
with  private  concerns  and  othera  are  on 
public  pay  rolls.  The  most  noticeable  of 
the  latter  are: 


Government    employes     ...265 

City    policemen    . .  65 

City  firemen   12 

Adult  probation  officer    1 

Juvenile    probation    officers     5 

Total 348 

Mrs.  Everlin  Cason.  4524  St.  Lawrence 
avenue;  Mary  E.  Clark,  3812  South  Wa- 
bash  avenue;  Mrs.  Alice  Simpson,  3215 
Prairie  avenue,  and  Mrs.  Mattie  I.  Thorn- 
ton, 4323  Forrestville  avenue,  are  post- 
office  clerks.  Miss  Susan  Boaz,  219  North 
Campbell  avenue;  Miss  Minnie  Jones  and 
Mrs.  A.  M.  Smith,  3256  Vernon  avenue, 
and  Mrs.  Jessie  Thomas,  3319  Forest 
avenue,  are  Juvenile  probation  officers 
and  Mrs.  Bessie  Gilmer,  S123  South  Dear- 
born street,  is  the  adult  probation  offi- 
cer. 

Joseph  C.  Wickliffe,  5329  South  Wabash 
avenue,  and  William  F.  Childs,  6353  Eber- 
hart  avenue,  are  lieutenants  in  the  fire 
and  police  departments  respectively. 


22 


CHAPTER  X 


Real  Estate  Values  and  Bad  Housing  Conditions 


Desire  of  well  to  do  colored  families  to 
get  better  homes  and  better  surroundings 
has  been  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  com- 
plaint against  the  race  in  Chicago.  The 
entrance  of  colored  residents  Into  a  high 
class  white  neighborhood  usually  evokes 
protests  and  sometimes  violence.  In  some 
instances  the  invader  is  of  the  shiftless 
class  which  peels  potatoes  on  the  front 
porch,  Jars  the  rear  horizon  with  wash- 
ings and  rubbish  and  generally  cheapens 
the  neighborhood.  Back  of  them  usually 
is  some  real  estate  speculator  who  hopes 
to  profit  by  affecting  property  values,  and 
so  the  protest  is  justified  regardless  of 
the  color  of  the  new  tenants.  In  most  in- 
stances, however,  the  first  colored  family 
to  enter  a  white  neighborhood  is  actuated 
to  a  certain  extent  by  a  desire  to  get 
away  from  evil  influences  and  conditions 
around  its  former  home. 

Rents  and  property  values  fall  In  a 
neighborhood  if  it  deteriorates  after 
colored  residents  have  come  into  it.  The 
first  comers  of  the  race,  however,  pay 
higher  rents  or  higher  prices  for  property 
than  the  white  tenants  then  in  posses- 
sion are  paying.  In  other  neighborhoods 
where  the  property  is  not  allowed  to  run 
down  after  It  is  occupied  by  colored  ten- 
ants and  owners — and  there  are  several 
such  neighborhoods  in  Chicago — the  val- 
ues hold  up. 

Error   in    Colored    Districts. 

"Chicago's  colored  population  is  grow- 
ing with  great  rapidity  and  its  welfare 
cannot  be  Ignored,"  said  a  prominent  real 
estate  dealer.  "A  civic  policy  which  holds 
that  anything  is  good  enough  and  noth- 
ing Is  too  bad  to  be  permitted  In  a  col- 
ored residence  or  business  district  is  now 
in  force.  The  better  class  of  colored  per- 
sons will  move  away  from  such  districts, 
leaving  an  element  which  discredits  the 
race  and  creating  a  plague  spot  endan- 
gering the  physical  and  moral  health  of 
the  entire  city." 

"Bad  housing  conditions  are  the  great- 
est cause  for  demoralization  among  col- 
ored people."  said  Dr.  George  C.  Hall, 
who  has  given  nntch  attention  to  that 
phase  of  the  problem  of  his  race.  "In 
order  to  get  in  a  decent  building  a  couple 
perhaps  are  compelled  to  take  an  eight 
room  flat;  in  order  to  keep  the  flat  they 
sublet  sevpn  rooms  and  eat  and  sleep  in 
the  kitchen.  Even  worse  consequences 
might  be  described.  Mr.  Rosenwald's 
smaller  flats  are  designed  to  relieve  this 
condition." 

One  colored  real  estate  man  a  few  days 
ago  sold  a  piece  of  proprty  on  Calumet 
avenue,  on  which  the  building  alone  had 
cost  $12,000,  to  another  colored  man  for 
$4,900.  Recently  he  sold  a  string  of  houses 
for  varying  prices,  the  lowest  cash  pay- 
ment being  $1,000.  Railroad  men,  civil 
service  employes  and  professional  men 


were  the  purchasers  and  he  said  that  none 
defaulted  on  the  payments.  He  holds  for 
$10,000  another  piece  of  property  with   A 
house  which  originally  cost  $40,000. 
Are  Keen  to  Own  Property. 

"Colored  persons  are  keen  to  own  prop- 
erty," said  Willis  V.  Jefferson,  a  real 
estate  man.  "A  couple  in  moderate  cir- 
cumstances will  buy  a  place  much  too 
large  for  their  family,  then  they  will  rent 
some  rooms,  the  wife  will  take  care  of 
the  house,  the  husband  will  work  and  in 
a  short  time  it  will  be  paid  for.  They  are 
pretty  crowded,  however,  while  the  pay- 
ments are  going  on.  As  a  rule  colored 
owners  of  property  keep  up  their  build- 
ings. Many  other  owners  of  property  with 
colored  tenants  let  the  buildings  decay." 

Running  south  between  South  State 
street  and  the  railroad  elevated  tracks 
west  of  the  street  is  a  strip  of  varying 
width  which  shows  how  a  district  can  de- 
teriorate. Not  so  very  long  ago  it  was  in- 
habited by  hard  working,  thrifty  colored 
families,  churches  were  built  there  and 
they  still  remain.  But  most  of  the  families 
which  once  gave  it  special  standing  have 
gone,  and  it  is  now  an  object  lesson. 
Classification  of  Building*. 

A  survey  of  every  house  In  three  blocks 
running  across  the  district  was  made  by 
The  Daily  News.  The  different  buildings 
in  the  district  were  classified  with  the 
number  in  each  class  as  follows: 

No.  |  No. 

41  Frame.   2  stories. ...  96 

221  Frame,    3  stories 19 

34 


Total    193 


Brick.    1    story. . 
Brick,    2   stories. 
Brick.    3   stories. 
Brick,    4   stories.          2 
Frame,  1  story . .         16 

The  condition  of  the  buildings  varied 
between  the  extreme  case  of  one  which 
bad  been  condemned  and  naJied  shut  iy 
the  city  health  department  two  years 
ago,  to  some  in  a  fair  state  of  cleanliness 
and  repair.  Under  four  classifications  the 
buildings  were  divided  as  follows: 

Street—  Good. Fair. Poor.  Bad.Total. 

S.   State,   west  side 7       18         6        6       37 

S.  Dearborn,  east  side..  4         6       13         1       24 
S.    Dearborn,   west   side.  12         6        9         3       30 

Federal,  east  side  7       14         6        5       32 

Federal,  west  side 5       12       11         1       29 

S.   LaSalle,  east  side...  274         3       16 
Cross   streets    4       13         3         6       25 


Totals 


.41        76       52       24      193 


Insanitary   Homes   Found. 

Many  of  the  buildings  did  not  hare 
lights  In  the  hallways.  One  did  not  have 
any  back  porches,  and  the  dark  hallways 
were  full  of  clotheslines  and  freshly 
washed  clothes.  Few  had  bathrooms,  and 
in  many  there  was  no  plumbing  or  els-e 
the  water  was  shut  off  on  account  of  non- 
payment of  rent.  Rickety  stairways  with- 
out handrails,  gaping  rents  in  the  plaster, 
leaky  roofs,  wet  basements,  indiscrim- 
inate refuse  and  dirt  and  other  violations 
of  health  and  building  regulations  of  the 
city  abounded. 


23 


In  this  district  were  1,406  colored  per-  plying  with  the  city  ordinances,"  said  Ed 

sons  and  not  more  than  twenty-five  white  Felix,  3002  South  Dearborn  street,  who 

persons.  Only  one  piece  of  property,  how-  has  been  in  business  in  the  district  for 

ever,  was  owned  by  a  colored  man.  The  more  than  thirty  years.  "As  they  run 

roadways  are  all  paved  and  are  cleaner  down  the  class  of  tenants  deteriorates, 

than  some  of  the  back  yards.  The  pav-  until  finally  come  those  who  won't  pay 

ing  of  the  streets  was  forced  several  years  rent.  It  is  too  expensive  to  evict  them  by 

ago  despite  the  opposition  of  the  white  court  proceedings  and  the  owner  shuts  off 

property  owners.  the  water.  Then  somebody  steals  the 

plumbing  and  the  property  is  picked  to 

"Many  owners  ma&e  absolutely  no  re-  pieces.  But  all  the  time  somebody  is  Hv- 

pairs  on  their  buildings,  not  even  com-  ing  In  It." 


24 


CHAPTER  XI 


Politics  Puts  Disorderly  Dives  Among  Homes 


On  the  southeast  corner  of  South  State 
and  35th  streets,  in  the  center  of  the 
colored  residence  and  business  district, 
is  the  Panama  saloon,  owned  by  Isadors 
Levin.  It  is  declared  to  be  the  most 
brazen,  decency-defying  saloon  in  the 
district — possibly  in  the  entire  city.  It 
might  be  called  two  saloons.  The  books 
of  the  city  collector,  however,  show  that 
only  one  license  has  been  taken  out. 

On  the  corner  is  a  bar.  Back  of  that  on 
the  East  35th  street  side  is  a  cabaret 
room.  Upstairs  is  another  big  cabaret 
room,  reached  by  an  inside  stairway 
from  the  rear  room  on  the  ground  floor. 
Drinks  are  served  on  both  floors.  The 
second  floor  has  a  service  bar  of  its  own. 
However,  even  if  the  waiters  carried 
their  dripping  trays  from  the  saloon  bar 
on  the  first  floor  two  licenses  would  be 
required  under  section  1527  of  the  code, 
one  for  each  floor.  Respectable  cafes 
downtown  laid  out  on  the  same  plan  ara 
required  to  pay  for  two  licenses.  Levin 
is  in  a  district  where  "ever/thing  goes." 

Panama's    Sons*    Indecent. 

The  first  floor  cabaret  has  an  orchss- 
tra.  four  girl  singers  and  one  man  sing- 
er, usually  in  varying  degrees  of  intoxi- 
cation. It  can  seat  150.  The  second 
floor  has  a  grand  piano,  the  same  number 
of  noise  makers,  more  tables  and  a  dan- 
cing space.  The  girls'  songs  are  not 
merely  suggestive.  They  are  unmistak- 
ably indecent.  As  singers  the  girls  ire 
not  much.  Personal  charms  apparently 
are  better  recommendations  than  singing 
ability. 

The  sixty  employes  of  the  place  are 
colored.  It  has  both  white  and  colored 
ptatrons.  Some  of  the  latter  are  well 
dressed  and  well  behaved;  others  are 
noisy,  in  mackinaws  and  sweaters.  Amon^ 
the  white  patrons  most  conspicuous  are 
the  "shimmers,"  largely  of  the  class  who 
kiss  on  the  corner  while  waiting  foi 
street  cars  and  whose  terms  of  endear- 
ment would  be  considered  cause  for  Jus- 
tifiable murder  in  the  far  west.  Equally 
numerous  but  less  noisy  are  the  white 
men  who  strike  up  acquaintance  with 
colored  girls  living  in  neighboring  "buf- 
fet" flats.  There  are  also  white  women 
who  associate  with  colored  men.  The 
waiters  do  a  profitable  brokerage  busi- 
ness in  arranging  meetings.  This  saloon 
is  one  of  the  best  sources  of  supply  for 
cases  in  the  Morals  court,  according  to 
Judge  Fisher. 

Proprietor    a    White    Man. 

Levin,  who  profits  by  this  establish- 
ment, is  a  white  man.  He  lives  at  3614 
Indiana  avenue.  The  Wacker  &  Birk 
Brewing  and  Malting  company,  whose  of- 
ficers, also  white,  talk  publicly  about 
"clean  saloons,"  is  less  openly  back  of 
the  dive.  On  Levin's  bond  to  secure  a 


license,  filed  in  the  city  clerk's  office, 
that  brewery,  signed  by  C.  Kenke  and  H. 
Horn,  is  the  surety.  The  two  names  da 
not  appear  in  the  city  directory. 

The  license  of  the  Panama  was  re- 
voked March  6  and  restored  March  16. 
1916.  It  was  again  revoked  July  11  and  re- 
stored Aug.  10.  It  is  rumored  that  Levin 
made  his  peace  with  the  police  and  the 
city  hall  and  that  it  cost  him  $1,000  on 
each  occasion.  Aid.  Oscar  De  Priest  ar- 
gued that  sixty  colored  men  and  girls 
were  employed  in  the  place  and  that  it 
should  be  reopened  to  help  give  employ- 
ment to  people  of  his  race.  Levin's 
white  attorney  was  a  law  partner  of 
Mayor  Thompson's  principal  advisers. 
Levin  also  forced  tbings  by  threatening 
to  do  some  talking  on  his  own  account. 
A  Levin  from  a  west  side  dive  was  one 
of  the  witnesses  against  former  Inspec- 
tor McCann  and  the  police  did  not  want 
any  repetition  of  such  testimony.  Levin's 
place  now  is  running  full  blast. 

"Teenan"  Jones  and  His  Ill-sort. 

A  few  doors  north,  at  3445  South  State 
street,  is  the  Elite  No.  2.  run  by  Henry 
("Teenan")  Jones.  It  is  smaller  than 
Levin's  Panama,  but  similar  to  it  in 
backroom  patronage.  "Teenan"  is  the 
colored  ruler  of  that  underworld  district. 
His  dealings  with  the  police  in  past  years 
and  his  profits  make  a  story  in  them- 
selves. The  saloon  is  only  one  of  his 
moneymaking  ventures.  It  is  declared 
that  the  police  would  no  more  think  of 
making  his  saloon  obey  the  law  than 
they  would  of  closing  one  of  tis  gambling 
houses.  When  other  saloons  close  at  1 
a.  m.,  a  line  of  automobiles  stretches 
along  the  street  and  the  sidewalk  is 
blocked  with  the  late  night  rounders 
waiting  to  slip  through  the  doors  of 
"Teenan's"  place  when  a  coveted  seat 
is  vacated. 

Other  resorts  in  the  district  are  worse; 
some  are  better.  These  are  typical  of 
the  roistering  saloons,  a  kind  which 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  other  part 
of  the  city  since  the  old  22d  street  levee 
was  broken  up.  Few  of  them  are  run  by 
colored  proprietors.  White  proprietors 
have  brought  them  into  the  district  and 
many  of  them  art)  patronized  largely  by 
crowds  from  other  parts  of  the  city.  The 
resorts  are  forced  on  the  colored  people. 
Those  colored  families  in  good  circum- 
stances and  desiring  respectable  sur- 
roundings move  away,  only  to  find  dis- 
orderly saloons  trailing  after  them. 

License  In  Spite  of  Protest. 

At  301  East  37th  street,  on  the  south- 
east corner  of  Forest  avenue,  is  the  sa- 
loon of  Sol  Joy  Collanger,  4100  Calumet 
avenue.  With  this  exception  the  district  is 
a  quiet,  respectable  residence  quarter. 
When  it  was  known  that  this  property 


25 


was  to  be  used  for  saloon  purposes  a 
petition  of  pretest  was  signed  by  300 
representative  colored  men  and  present- 
ed to  Mayor  Harrison.  The  mayor  did 
not  grant  the  license  until  after  he  was 
defeated  at  the  primaries  two  years  ago. 
Adam  Ortseifen,  friend  of  the  mayor's 
and  an  influential  citizen,  is  the  official 
head  of  the  British  corporation  which 
owns  the  brewery  which  supplies  the  sa- 
loon with  beer  and  is  on  its  bond. 

At  night  this  saloon  is  an  animated 
place.  Reputable  colored  families  object 
to  it  chiefly  on  account  of  the  numbers 
of  disorderly  white  women  who  meet  col- 
ored men  in  its  diminutive  back  room. 
In  the  barroom  an  automatic  piano 
thumps  through  the  night  until  closing 
hours.  On  the  mirrors  are  pasted  chro- 
mos  of  "September  Morn"  and  other 
poses  of  nude  women. 

"Buffet"  flats  and  disorderly  hotels  are 
adjuncts  of  the  bad  saloons.  They  make 
a  better  harvest  for  the  police  than  the 
saloons.  The  borderland  of  a  colored 
residential  district  is  the  haven  for  dis- 
orderly resorts.  Protests  of  colored  fam- 
ilies against  the  painted  women  in  their 
neighborhood,  the  midnight  honking  of 
automobiles,  the  loud  profanity  and  vul- 
garity are  usually  ignored  by  the  police. 

In  one  block  between  South  State  and 
South  Dearborn  streets  which  was  can- 
vassed by  The  Daily  News,  five  places 
were  found  openly  admitted  to  be  disor- 


derly houses.  Some  were  in  flat  build- 
ings, the  other  tenants  of  which  appar- 
ently were  respectable,  some  raising  fam- 
ilies of  children. 

llow    Resort   Got   a    Location. 

Many  white  owners  of  real  estate  who 
speak  in  horrified  whispers  of  vice  dan- 
gers view  such  dangers  with  complacency 
when  these  are  thrust  among  colored 
families.  Two  years  ago  a  woman  of  the 
underworld  and  her  gambler  husband  de- 
cided to  open  a  "high  class"  resort  on 
the  south  side.  She  got  a  location  as  a 
neighbor  of  reputable  colored  people  by 
purchasing  the  home  of  a  former  alder- 
man and  leader  in  a  church,  the  one 
of  which  the  Rev.  John  P.  Brushingham, 
secretary  of  Mayor  Thompson's  morals 
commission,  is  pastor.  The  woman  was 
one  of  the  most  notorious  of  the  demi- 
monde. An  oil  painting  of  her  as  she 
was  before  her  husband  in  a  fit  of  jeal- 
ousy bit  off  part  of  her  nose  for  years 
had  hung  in  a  saloon  of  international 
reputation. 

These  are  some  of  the  influences  which 
the  colored  population  is  forced  to  com- 
bat in  its  fight  for  decency  and  good  cit- 
izenship. A  few  secure  political  prefer- 
ment and  others  profit  by  catering  to  the 
city's  vices,  while  the  rank  and  file  are 
hedged  around  by  demoralizing  influences 
and  the  race  is  discredited  unjustly. 


26 


CHAPTER  XII 


Gambling  Controlled  by  a  Powerful  Political  Syndicate 


The  rattle  of  the  dice,  the  click  of  the 
poker  chip  and  the  gentle  falling  of  the 
cards  is  seldom  stilled  in  what  is  known 
as  the  heart  of  Chicago's  "colored  dis- 
trict." Gambling  is  a  popular  recreation 
among  a  certain  element.  Protests  of  the 
better  element  of  colored  people  appar- 
ently fall  on  deaf  ears.  Gambling  nouses 
and  clubs  are  as  easy  to  locate  and  run 
almost  as  openly  as  grocery  stores.  Their 
sanction  and  protection  by  politicians  and 
police  is  on  a  "business"  basis.  If  a 
person  has  made  the  "proper"  arrange- 
ments he  can  run  without  molestation 
but  if  he  has  overlooked  that  important 
detail  he  may  safely  bet  that  he  will  be 
raided  the  first  night.  The  arrangements 
are  said  by  those  who  ought  to  know  to 
be  largely  financial. 

Whether  gambling  is  a  more  dangerous 
cause  of  demoralization  of  a  community 
than  are  disorderly  saloons,  buffet  flats 
and  dissolute  women  is  an  often  discussed 
question.  Gambling  is  a  man's  game,  <s 
more  open  and  the  connection  between 
it,  the  police  and  politics  easier  to  trace. 
In  order  to  gamble  the  police  must  oe 
either  evaded,  which  is  difficult,  or  male 
blind  by  a  peculiar  remedy  for  Iteh'ng 
palms  or  by  orders  from  political  powers 
that  be.  However,  it  usually  1s  the  sam^ 
police  and  the  same  politicians  who  are 
protecting  both  Hass^s  of  vice. 

Need  "Syndicate"  Approval. 

Colored  men  are  in  active  control  of  the 
gambling  situation  in  the  big  part  of 
their  district  in  the  2d  ward.  Back  of 
t?iem  are  white  police  officials  at  one  end 
of  the  line  and  white  politicians  who 
keep  them  in  power  at  the  other  end  of 
the  line.  When  2d  ward,  and  even  some 
adjacent  ward,  gambling  is  discussed  by 
gamblers  on  the  inside,  certain  colored 
men  always  are  mentioned.  They  are 
called  "the  syndicate"  and  their  approval 
is  said  to  be  necessary  if  the  police  are 
to  let  anybody  run  in  the  ward. 

Henry  ("Teenan")  Jones,  owner  if  the 
Elite  saloon  No.  2,  the  Star  movit  thea- 
ter, gambling  houses,  several  road  shows 
and  entertainment  propositions,  made  a 
fortune  as  intermediary  between  the  col- 
ored sporting  world  and  the  police.  He 
was  close  to  former  Inspector  Nicholas 
Hunt. 

"Bill"  Lewis,  old  time  and  well  to  do 
gambler,  who  'for  years  has  run  a  big 
protected  game  for  high  players,  both 
white  and  colored,  has  been  a  noted  char- 
acter in  the  underworld  since  he  shot  the 
late  "Pony"  Moore  and  a  woman  at  3d 
avenue  and  Taylor  street  many  years  ago 
in  the  wide  open  days  of  the  old  levee. 

David  L.  Knighten,  employe  of  the  elec- 
tion commissioners'  office  and  husband  of 
Dr.  Anna  B.  Knighten,  better  known  as 
"Dr.  Schultz,"  3430  Calumet  avenue,  is 
influential  in  the  district.  Knighten  IB  a 
democrat  in  politics,  but  has  been  well 


known  on  the  colored  levee  since  the  days 
when  "Black  Mag"  was  in  her  prime. 
Explain  DePrlest'»  Activity. 

Oscar  DePriest,  real  estate  dealer  and 
alderman  from  the  2d  ward,  is  the  highest 
in  political  office  among  Chicago  colored 
men  and  always  has  been  aggressive  for 
the  rights  of  his  people.  Some  answer 
the  common  talk  of  his  familiarity  with 
gambling  and  other  resorts  by  declaring 
it  a  part  of  his  duty  as  alderman  to  see 
that  the  colored  people  get  a  part  in  ev- 
erything going. 

It  is  reported  that  under  the  so  called 
"syndicate"  control  the  first  month  of 
operation  showed  a  profit  of  $1,800.  After 
that  the  profit  is  said  to  have  risen  to 
$5,700  a  month,  according  to  one  close 
to  the  money,  which  is  now  the  average 
sum  divided  monthly.  Colored  men  who 
have  wished  to  discuss  opening  gambling 
houses  with  the  political  powers  in  the 
ward  are  said  to  have  been  referred  to 
"Teenan,"  the  real  "boss"  of  the  colored 
sporting  world.  The  terms  insisted  on 
are  said  to  have  been  practically  the 
same  in  all  cases — 40  or  50  per  cent  of 
the  gross  profits  and  the  syndicate  to  put 
a  man  inside  to  see  that  there  was  no 
Holding  out  on  the  percentage.  Present 
orders  from  the  syndicate  to  their  houses 
are  to  "lay  low"  until  the  new  chief  of 
police  is  named. 

"Bill"  Lewis'  place,  upstairs  at  14  East 
35th.  street,  is  the  headquarters  for  the 
syndicate.  The  men  who  run  the  hand- 
books by  day,  or  bank  the  thirty  or  forty 
games  by  night,  bring  their  cash  there 
after  the  play  is  over  and  come  there  to 
get  their  "bank  rolls,"  the  syndicate's 
share  deducted  in  the  interim,  before  they 
start  the  next  day.  Occasionally  the 
money  is  kept  in  "Teenan's"  safe.  Lewis' 
nlaop  Is  considered  the  flparlngr  house. 
Expose  by  The  Dally  New*. 

Until  The  Daily  News  printed  a  list  of 
a  dozen  of  the  biggest  gambling  houses  In 
the  district,  Lewis'  place  ran  with  the 
curtains  up  and  the  games  and  players 
could  be  seen  from  the  platform  or  ttie 
elevated  station.  Out  of  deference  to  the 
feelings  of  the  police  of  the  Stanton  ave- 
nue station  the  curtains  were  pulled  down 
after  that.  The  game  did  not  stop. 
"Bill"  Lewis'  familiar  figure,  stubby 
gray  mustache,  pearl  gray  fuzzy  fedora 
pulled  down  over  his  eyes,  collar  turned 
up  and  hands  in  his  overcoat  pockwts 
stands  in  the  East  35th  street  doorway 
every  night.  Occasionally  a  doorman  re- 
lieves him.  White  and  black  patrons, 
singly,  in  pair,  in  groups,  are  coming  and 
going,  loudly  discussing  their  winnings  ">r 
losings.  Its  character  as  a  gambling 
house  is  plain  even  without  "Bill's"  w*ll 
known  figure,  which  is  as  illuminating  to 
insiders  as  an  electric  sign  in  front  °f 
a  theater. 

When  complaints  come  to  the  police 
against  any  of  the  syndicate  games  gam- 


27 


biers  say  the  proorjetors  are  notified.  If 
the  "knock"  is  too  strong  a  raid  is  made, 
after  sufficient  warning.  The  ordinary 
patrolman  or  detective  would  no  more 
raid  Lewis'  place  than  he  would  his  cap- 
tain's clothes  locker  at  the  police  station. 
Games  which  do  not  belong  to  the  syndi- 
cate are  classed  as  "outlaws"  and  raided 
before  they  get  fairly  started. 

Across  the  street  from  Lewis'  clearing 
house,  on  the  second  floor  at  11  Bast  36th 
street,  an  entrance  on  the  alley,  "Mex- 
ican Frank"  Gordon  once  ran.  He  had 
poker  and  craps,  the  same  as  at  the 
clearing  house,  only  the  play  was  cheap- 
er. He  was  raided  continuously  until  he 
was  put  out  of  business.  "Chatty"  Pink- 
stone  followed  under  the  name  of  the 
Chauffeurs'  club,  also  refusing  to  pay  the 
syndicate.  The  police  waited  for  him  to 
get  a  bank  roll  together  and  then 
"sloughed"  him.  He  opened  on  the  sec- 
ond floor  at  3523  South  State  street  and 
was  put  out  of  business  in  the  same  way. 
Some  of  the  Gambling?  Resorts. 

Some  of  the  principal  gambling  places 
in  the  district  are: 

3016  South  State  street,  second  floor, 
Dunbar  club,  a  mockery  on  the  name  of 
the  late  Paul  Laurence  Dunbar,  the  bril- 
liant young  colored  poet  who  brought  so 
much  honor  to  his  race.  It  is  one  of  the 
biggest  of  the  syndicate  games.  Bud 
Woods  is  in  charge.  Craps  and  stud 
poker  get  the  best  play. 

3121  South  State  street,  dice  and  poker 
game,  run  by  Hugh  Hoskins  and  Kid 
Brown,  getting  the  best  of  the  play  from 
31st  street. 

3212  South  State  street,  second  floor, 
run  by  "Red  Dick"  Wilson  and  Charley 
Kunz.  This  is  the  brilliantly  lighted 
place  which  used  Masonic  Shrine  banners 
for  curtains  in  its  front  windows. 

3433  South  State  street,  second  floor, 
Hobnob  club  of  "Yellow  Bill1'  Bass,  a  po- 
litical supporter  of  Aid.  DePriest.  Runs 
so  openly  that  the  rattle  of  the  chips  can 
be  heard  on  the  street. 

3512  South  State  street,  second  floor, 
rear,  run  by  "Sport"  McFariand.  His 
IB  a  syndicate  game,  but  he  once  was 
arrested. 


Gathering   in    the   Victims. 

Many  of  the  gambling  houses  have  run- 
ners out  whose  work  is  as  systematic  as 
that  of  insurance  solicitors.  They  gath- 
er in  the  strangers  in  the  city,  men  with 
their  week's  pay  in  their  pockets,  sleep- 
ing car  porters  who  have  got  off  their 
runs  on  the  railroads,  or  anybody  who 
will  be  grist  for  the  gambling  mill. 

In  a  different  class  are  the  quasiprivate 
gambling  clubs.  The  newest  one  is  up- 
stairs on  the  northeast  corner  of  Forest 
avenue  and  East  35th  street,  in  which 
Bernard  W.  Fitts  is  the  moving  spirit. 
To  enter  It  a  person  must  be  a  member 
or  the  guest  of  a  member,  as  in  some 
of  the  more  pretentious  clubs  where 
gambling  is  a  prominent  feature.  "Bill" 
Thomas  who  ran  the  Kentucky  club  is 
its  manager. 

Walter  Speedy  refused  to  go  into  the 
syndicate  and  his  place,  the  Ranier  club, 
3010  South  State  street,  second  floor,  was 
raided.  That  was  not  a  permanent  dam- 
per on  his  insubordination,  and  Speedy 
now  is  in  the  bridewell  on  a  pandering 
charge.  "Big  Dave"  McGowan,  "Bob" 
Ridley  and  a  number  of  others  whose 
faces  have  shown  at  gambling  houses  in 
the  past  are  reputable  citizens  now.  The 
syndicate  keeps  them  so. 

Colored   Gamhlera   of  Note. 

Chicago  has  had  many  notorious  colored 
gamblers,  Mortimer  and  Hunter,  "Mush- 
mouth"  Johnson,  John  Jennings,  nearly 
seven  feet  tall,  draped  in  a  sealskin  coat; 
"Yellow"  Reynolds,"the  Cleveland  sport," 
and  others  of  a  later  day.  Jennings  died 
in  Dunning,  after  being  a  roustaoout  in 
the  rough  dives  of  Gary,  Ind.  Reynolds, 
who  always  would  bet  $120  to  $100  that  a 
crap  shooter  would  not  pass,  went  broke. 
His  last  spectacular  play  was  to  pull  a 
diamond  set  gold  tooth  from  his  jaw 
against  a  $50  bet. 

Those  were  the  days  when  gambling 
was  one  of  the  few  lines  of  prosperous 
activity  open  to  colored  men.  Politically 
some  would  like  to  keep  it  so  even  at 
the  expense  of  holding  back  the  race  as 
a  whole  from  progress. 


28 


CHAPTER  XIII 


Mayors,  Congressmen  and  State  Senators  Elected  by  Colored  Voters 


From  the  plague  spots  of  the  districts 
of  Chicago  in  which  colored  people  dwell, 
where  disorderly  saloons,  "buffet"  flats, 
gambling  houses  and  other  symptoms  of 
commercialized  vice  are  tolerated  by  the 
police,  the  chain  of  politics  stretches 
upward.  It  'has  many  links.  It  reaches 
to  the  marble  columns  of  the  national 
capitol  at  Washington.  It  touches  many 
legislative  halls  and  high  offices  before  it 
ends  in  the  nation's  greatest  legislative 
body.  Men  high  in  the  nation,  state  and 
city  owe  their  political  life  to  the  vote 
of  colored  citizens.  These  same  men 
are  politically  responsible  for  conditions 
as  they  exist  among  their  constituents.  If 
the  colored  citizen  does  not  get  his  share 
of  opportunities  and  advantages  which 
the  city  and  state  offer  and  has  more 
than  his  share  of  the  vice  and  demorali- 
zation thrust  upon  him  by  white  politi- 
cians, his  political  leaders  are  the  per- 
sons to  whom  he  must  appeal. 

Congressman  and   Senator. 

Martin  B.  Madden,  congressman  from 
the  1st  Illinois  district,  and  George  F. 
Harding,  state  senator  at  Springfield  from 
the  1st  senatorial  district,  are  the  two 
men  who,  in  the  last  analysis,  control  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  colored  vote 
of  Chicago.  That  vote  is  a  factor  in 
a  lesser  way  in  other  sections  of  the 
city  and  in  this  district  it  elects  other 
officials.  No  other  politicians  have  the 
same  control  as  these  two.  The  balance 
of  power  wielded  by  the  colored  vote, 
swung  by  Senator  Harding,  gave  Mayor 
Thompson  his  nomination  and  his  sub- 
sequent election.  Samuel  A.  Ettelson,  cor- 
poration counsel  and  state  senator  from 
the  3d  district,  also  depends  on  the  col- 
ored vote.  The  1st  and  3d  districts  have 
a  colored  representative  each,  the  one 
from  the  1st  having  been  selected  by 
Harding.  The  race's  vote  which  is  abso- 
lute in  the  2d  ward  where  Harding  con- 
trols, has  picked  Hugh  Norris,  white,  and 
Oscar  De  Priest  colored,  lor  aldermen. 
De  Priest  now  lines  with  the  Madden-Et- 
telson  element. 

Congressman  Madden  was  the  first  to 
capitalize  the  colored  vote.  Senator  Hard- 
Ing,  then  alderman,  followed  and  devel- 
oped it  on  more  systematic  lines.  He  is 
the  political  czar  with  an  inexhaustible 
campaign  barrel  and  no  disgruntled  sub- 
chief  has  ever  successfully  opposed  him. 
Congressman  Madden  watches  his  politi- 
cal fences  with  care.  Senator  Harding  is 
one  of  the  largest  real  estate  owners  in 
the  city.  Charges  have  come  from  the 
offices  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  that 
some  of  Senator  Harding's  buildings  are 
used  for  "buffet"  flats,  disorderly  saloons 
and  similar  purposes.  Senator  Harding 
has  answered  that  when  the  character  of 
undesirable  tenants  was  discovered  they 
were  evicted  and  that  with  such  a  large 


rent  list  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  pre- 
vent some  such  tenants  from  slipping  in 
before  their  business  is  known. 

Harding   and    Police   Job*. 

Congressman  Madden  and  Senator 
Harding  have  much  to  say  as  to  who 
shall  do  the  police  work  in  their  terri- 
tory, especially  under  the  present  admin- 
istration. Harding  says  'he  leaves  such 
local  affairs  to  the  two  aldermen.  Aid. 
Norris  says  he  does  not  act  as  a  gobe- 
tween  for  his  constituents  and  the  police 
and  that  with  the  latter  he  does  not  have 
enough  influence  to  close  a  gambling 
house,  having  tried  once  and  failed.  Aid. 
De  Priest  is  left  as  the  active  boss  on  the 
Job  over  the  police,  but  Senator  Harding 
has  the  final  word.  It  is  apparently  up 
to  Harding  and  De  Priest  to  say  whether 
the  colored  voters  who  elect  them  shall 
live  amid  respectable  surroundings  or 
whether  their  district  shall  become  the 
dumping  ground  for  the  vice  of  the  city. 

"I  was  told  that  a  political  meeting  to 
oppose  me  was  held  at  the  Dunbar  club," 
said  Aid.  Norris,  relating  his  amazing 
police  experience  with  the  notorious 
gambling  house  at  3016  South  State  street. 
"I  complained  against  the  club  to  the 
police  station  and  a  couple  of  days  later 
the  captain  told  me  he  had  investigated 
and  could  not  find  any  gambling.  One  of 
the  men  who  played  there  kept  me  In- 
formed and  I  insisted  on  some  action 
being  taken.  One  afternoon  the  police 
raided  the  place  when  two  colored  base- 
ball teams  were  playing  and  had  drawn 
such  crowds  to  see  them  that  there  was 
not  a  colored  'sport*  with  money  east  of 
Wentworth  avenue.  The  club  was  open 
that  night  as  usual.  I  got  after  the  cap- 
tain again  and  he  stationed  officers  at  the 
front  and  rear  entrances.  My  gambler 
friend  told  me  two  policemen  were  there 
and  the  game  had  been  moved  next  door 
with  the  players  stepping  over  the  police- 
men's toes  as  they  came  and  went.  The 
police  didn't  want  to  and  wouldn't  close 
the  club,  so  I  quit." 

This  Is  a  typical  Illustration  of  how  the 
police  act  against  a  lawbreaklng  estab- 
lishment that  is  protected  by  the  "sys- 
tem," even  though  they  antagonize  an 
alderman.  A  general  tendency  is  shown 
to  neglect  the  district  by  police,  health, 
building  department  or  other  officials.  The 
residents  do  not  get  such  public  conven- 
iences as  citizens  residing  elsewhere  en- 
joy, and  so  they  push  out  into  other  parts 
of  the  city  in  search  of  them. 

"My  opinion,  based  on  observation  In 
this  court,  is  that  crime  conditions  among 
the  colored  people  are  being  deliberately 
fostered  by  the  present  city  administra- 
tion," said  Judge  Harry  M.  Fisher  of  the 
Morals  court.  "Disorderly  cabarets, 
thieves  and  depraved  women  are  allowed 
in  the  section  of  the  city  where  colored 


29 


people  live.  They  have  an  expression, 
'The  law  is  around  to-night,'  as  a  warn- 
ing to  behave,  so  seldom  Is  the  law  en- 
forced. The  race  is  being  exploited  for 
the  sake  of  men  in  politics  who  are  a 
disgrace  to  their  own  race.  Young,  unat- 
tached men  or  women,  strangers  and  un- 
sophisticated, are  brought  into  this  dis- 
trict from  the  south,  and  their  first  taste 
of  freedom  is  downward." 

Pool  hall  night  schools  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  crime,  insanitary  and  dangerous 
homes,  surroundings  of  vice  and  deprav- 
ity abound,  in  contrast  to  the  necessities 
of  good  citizenship  which  are  lacking. 

Colored  Race  and   the  Law. 

Colored  persons  involved  with  the  law 
are  greatly  in  excess  of  the  proportion  of 
other  races,  according  to  the  annual  re- 
port for  1915  of  the  Chicago  police  de- 
partment. The  figures,  summarized,  were: 


Total  Colored 
(All  races. )Per9tms.  Pet. 

Population    2,500,000  75,000     3.0 

Arrests    121,704  9,960      8.2 

Percentage    arrested 4.9  18.8 

Convicted   46,987  6,861    10.4 

Per  cent  prisoners  convict- 
ed              38.6  48.8 

The  great  excess  in  the  percentage  of 
convictions  is  explained  by  colored  law- 
yers on  the  theory  that  the  colored  pris- 
oner is  looked  on  with  less  favor  than  a 
white  one. 

In  the  Juvenile  court  the  figures  were: 
Delinquents.  Dependents.  TotaL 
±*oys.  Girls.  Boys.  Girls. 

Amer'ns   (white)    356     99          241       223          919 
Amer'ns   (col'd).    168      66  64         84          818 

All    nativities.. 2,192    594       1.116    1.194       6,096 

In  the  Morals  court  the  percentage  of 
colored  prisoners  is  even  higher.  Reform 
authorities  say  that  the  percentage  of 
crime  is  increased  greatly  by  the  dis- 
orderly surroundings  in  which  so  many  of 
the  colored  people  are  forced  to  live. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


Planning  for  the  Future  and  Better  Conditions 


Those  farsighted  persons  who  look  to 
the  future  of  the  colored  population  of 
Chicago  are  awake  to  the  situation.  De- 
voted men  and  women,  both  white  and 
colored,  have  given  freely  of  their  time 
and  money  to  help  direct  the  leas 
fortunate  ones  in  the  right  direction  and 
surround  them  with  proper  influences. 
Reputable  members  of  the  Negro  race, 
these  who  have  real  influence  in  the  com- 
munity, are  grappling  as  best  they  can 
with  the  task  of  uplifting  a  people  who 
are  discriminated  against  in  civic  oppo- 
tunities  and  overloaded  with  city  evils. 
White  citizens  also  realize  that  the  rapid 
influx  of  colored  people  from  the  south 
has  made  the  problem  one  that  cannot 
be  disregarded  and  one  that  involves  the 
future  of  the  entire  city. 

Among  the  colored  people  are  many  or- 
ganizations. Nearly  all  of  them  profess 
a  purpose  looking  toward  race  betterment 
or  religious  growth,  but  a  great  many 
overlook  this  purpose  in  the  more  imme- 
diate satisfaction  of  literary  and  social 
meetings.  The  churches  all  have  their 
individual  organizations,  which  do  an  im- 
mense amount  of  work.  In  the  last  few 
years  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  similar  organ- 
izations have  got  fairly  started  on  prac- 
tical work  among  the  people. 

To     Co-Orillnate     4OO     Organizations. 

Organization  of  a  Chicago  branch  of  the 
National  League  on  Urban  Conditions 
Among  Negroes,  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  practical  of  their  organizations,  is 
under  way.  L.  Hollingsworth  Wood  of 
New  York  is  the  national  president.  Miss 


Sophronisba  P.  Breckenridge  and  Dr. 
George  C.  Hall  are  the  Chicago  members 
of  the  directorate.  Eugene  Kinckle  Jones, 
one  of  the  league's  national  secretaries, 
held  a  meeting  with  the  local  leaders, 
and  T.  Arnold  Hill,  one  of  the  national 
organizers,  was  left  in  charge.  The  league 
plans  to  make  a  survay  of  housing  and 
living  conditions,  moral  surroundings, 
avenues  of  work  and  other  phases  of  life 
among  colored  residents.  It  will  co- 
ordinate the  work  of  about  400  present 
colored  organizations. 

A  similar  survey  was  made  by  a  local 
class  in  civics  in  the  fall  of  1913.  Fifty 
blocks  between  26th,  South  LaSalle  and 
36th  streets  and  South  Wabash  avenue 
were  covered.  In  them  were  found  118 
destructive  and  sixteen  constructive  agen- 
cies. In  the  ten  blocks  along  South  State 
street  were  eighty-two  destructives  and 
sixteen  constructive  agencies.  Of  the 
sixteen  ten  were  for  Negroes,  four  for 
whites  and  two  were  schools  for  both 
races.  The  league  proposes  to  expend 
$1,000  in  making  its  survey.  It  has  done 
similar  work  with  excellent  results  in 
other  cities. 

The  National  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Colored  People  already  has 
a  local  organization.  Miss  Jane  Addams 
and  Dr.  Charles  E.  Bentley  are  national 
directors. 

The  Federated  Colored  organizations 
also  have  launched  the  Rotary  Settlement 
movement  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  "de- 
stroying much  of  the  fertile  soil  for 
viciousness  and  corruption." 


30 


Tvro  Different  Plans  of  Work. 

Those  working  for  the  uplifting  of  their 
race  in  Chicago  as  elsewhere  may  be  di- 
vided roughly  into  two  schools — one 
working  on  the  plans  followed  by  the  late 
Booker  T.  Washington  and  the  other  fol- 
lowing the  theories  advanced  by  W.  E. 
Burghardt  DuBois  of  New  York.  Though 
their  ideas  may  differ  on  details,  both 
groups  are  striving  sincerely  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  their  people. 

Thinking  colored  persons  are  keenly 
awake  to  the  dangers  pressing  in  on 
th^m  because  of  the  unbridled  license 
which  city  authorities  permit  in  wards 
like  the  2d. 

"Increased  demands  made  upon  our  in- 
dustries have  brought  among  us  thousands 
of  colored  men,  who,  while  speaking  the 
same  language  as  we  do,  are  in  many 
cases  little  more  accustomed  to  the  free- 
dom of  this  city,  the  habits  and  customs 
of  our  people  than  is  the  newly  arrived 
peasant  from  Europe,"  said  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  A.  Blackwell,  pastor  of  Walters 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  church. 
"These  people  must  be  amalgamated  and 
assimilated.  They  must  be  saved  from 
the  evil  influences  which  surround  them 
and  started  in  the  right  life." 

Free   and   Kiisy    Conditions. 

"The  system  seems  to  be  to  have  free 
and  easy  conditions  along  South  State 
and  35th  streets,"  said  Morris  Lewis,  3633 
Forest  avenue,  secretary  to  the  Peck  es- 
tate and  an  officer  of  the  Douglas  Im- 
provement association.  "About  all  we 
can  get  action  on  is  a  dirty  alley.  As 
to  driving  out  'buffet'  flats  and  similar 
dives,  the  only  hope  we  have  is  that  the 
Committee  of  Fifteen  will  give  some  at- 
tention to  our  district  and  force  the  city 
officials  to  do  something." 

"It  makes  those  who  look  forward  to  a 
future  for  the  colored  race  blush  when 
they  see  the  conditions  in  State  street  by 
day  and  night,"  said  Dr.  Bentley. 

"The  colored  young  man  or  girl  has  a 
lack  of  good,  wholesome  moral  opportuni- 
ties," explained  Edward  H.  Wright,  an 
assistant  corporation  counsel. 

"The  delinquent  colored  boy  or  girl 
who  is  taken  to  the  Juvenile  court  is 
turned  out  again  on  probation  to  learn 
more  and  keep  going  until  either  sent  to 
the  penitentiary  or  hanged,"  said  Dr. 
Hall.  "If  Chicago  lacks  the  vision  to  see 


ahead  it  will  reap  the  harvest  of  foster- 
Ing  a  kindergarten  on  the  streets  where 
gamins  learn  crime  and  know  that  once 
on  probatiou  they  are  immune  from  ar- 
rest. There  was  a  time  when  in  every 
saloon,  gambling  joint,  disorderly  house 
or  other  vicious  or  degrading  place  a 
colored  man  or  woman  was  employed. 
The  employment  was  that  of  catering  to 
the  vices.  Now  the  colored  people  have 
learned  that  they  can  advance  only 
through  respectable  employments,  re- 
spectable associations.  The  colored  peo- 
yle  must  awake  themselves  up,  ibuy  prop- 
eity,  raise  children  and  build  homes  for 
the  future.  The  one-time  feeling  of  dis- 
trust and  jealousy  Is  passing  away  and 
they  must  unite  for  their  future  develop- 
ment." 

"The  city  has  the  right  to  expect  certain 
standards  of  living  among  colored  people, 
and  it  has  no  right  to  force  gambling 
houses  and  disorderly  dives  among  them," 
said  the  Rev.  Myron  E.  Adams,  former 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  church,  and 
still  actively  Interested  in  the  welfare 
of  the  south  side.  "They  should  have 
wholesome  recreational  advantages.  They 
must  co-operate  instead  of  discrediting 
each  other.  Their  religious  leaders  should 
emphasize  the  practical  elements  of  hu- 
manity as  well  as  the  emotional  ones  of 
religion.  Thrift,  honesty,  punctuality  and 
civic  obligations  must  be  appreciated." 

Need   of   Improvement  Shown. 

This  is  the  concluding  article  in  the 
series  which  The  Daily  News  has  pre- 
pared, the  first  thorough  study  of  the 
colored  population  of  Chicago.  The  arti- 
cles have  shown  the  extent  of  this  pop- 
ulation, how  it  is  distributed  through  the 
city  and  the  rapidity  with  which  it  has 
increased  in  recent  months.  The  oppor- 
tunities for  the  colored  boy  or  girl  have 
been  pointed  out,  and  many  colored  men 
and  women  who  by  their  efforts  and  tal- 
ents have  become  valued  members  of  the 
community  and  nation  have  been  men- 
tioned by  name.  The  articles  also  have 
described  the  injurious  physical  conditions 
forced  on  the  so  called  "colored  districts" 
either  from  motives  of  politics  or  of  av- 
arice, conditions  which  tend  to  retard  the 
progress  of  the  race.  These  conditions 
must  be  changed  in  the  interest  of  the 
healthy,  steady  advancement  of  the  race 
as  a  whole. 


31 


\ 


THE  BEST  WAR  NEWS 


The  London  Chronicle  of  December 
4,  1914,  said:  "The  Chicago  Daily  News, 
which  is  by  far  the  best  evening  news- 
paper in  the  world,  has  over  thirty  cor- 
respondents in  Europe  reporting  on  the 


war.'3 


The  London  Chronicle  of  June  19, 
1915,  said:  "The  Chicago  Daily  News, 
which  has  published  more  special  war 
news  than  any  other  paper  in  Amer- 
ica *  *  *  ." 

An  old  Chicago  newspaper  man, 
speaking  to  a  friend  the  other  day, 
said:  "Tom,  I  see  all  the  principal 
newspapers  of  the  country,  and  do  you 
know  that  the  best  news  of  the  war  is 
put  together  right  here  in  Chicago  in 
our  Daily  News?" 

Are  you  reading  the  best  war  news 
in  America  in  the  best  news-paper  in 
Chicago  ? 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBAN* 


30112031886598 


